Toddler has rare blood disease
In December Kara KumeroaNorthcott, 2, will get a new baby brother or sister and they could just save her life.
The Taranaki toddler has been in Starship Hospital in Auckland since August 5 after she developed a black eye from a minor fall and her parents rushed her to hospital.
‘‘We were in Auckland at a friend’s 21st and she had a fall off a little chair and hit her head,’’ her mother, Keriana Kumeroa, said.
The bruising turned out to be because of a blood disease so rare only one in two million people get it.
Their plans of heading home to Manaia that day vanished when she was examined.
‘‘They said it looked like she could have leukaemia and needed a bone marrow biopsy,’’ Kumeroa, said.
‘‘They talked to us about treatment options, then the bone marrow results came back later that day and it wasn’t leukaemia.’’
Two weeks later, she was diagnosed with severe aplastic anaemia, which means her bone marrow doesn’t make red blood cells as it should. The severe bruising was because her blood was unable to clot.
At present the toddler is having supportive treatment to keep her stable, Kumeroa said.
‘‘Without these blood transfusions and platelet transfusions she’d have nothing to survive on.
‘‘They’ve been really good keeping us informed up here. They don’t know yet what caused it, so they’ve sent blood samples to Europe, Sydney, Melbourne and Wellington trying to find us some answers, and they’re testing our genetics to see if we have some abnormality.
‘‘Once they find a cause, they can give us some treatment options.’’
One option is a bone marrow transplant to help her body to begin creating its own new blood cells.
Both Kumeroa and Chresten Northcott, Kara’s father, have had their bone marrow sent away for screening as suitable donors but there is one other potential donor that could hold the key.
The couple are expecting their second baby in December, she said.
‘‘I’m pregnant at the moment and they’re going to see if the baby could potentially have it [the disease], and if New Zealand has no suitable donors, they are also looking at it as a potential donor, using cells from the umbilical cord.’’
There are other treatment options the family is learning about.
‘‘It’s all a waiting game, everything is just scary at the moment,’’ she said. ‘‘I feel like at the end of the day, we’re not as strong as she is, she’s going through all the treatments, so we just have to be strong for her.’’
Chresten Northcott, has been commuting back to Taranaki for work while Kumeroa stayed with Kara.
A Givealittle page has been set up to help the family with the costs of treatment, travel and living away from home.