Family want charges after crash
Paralysed toddler making amazing progress but parents angry
The family of little Amirah Najim-Phillips want charges laid over the crash that left their “beautiful toddler” paralysed and fighting for her life.
The 2-year-old was last week taken off life support and has now been moved out of the intensive care unit at Auckland’s Starship hospital, six weeks after the horrific crash near Waiouru on June 13.
Wellington couple Daelyn Phillips, 23, and Mohammed Najim, 21, were travelling home from Auckland with their two daughters when an oncoming vehicle is believed to have crossed the centre line and smashed into their car.
The toddler was one of seven people injured in the collision, which killed a baby travelling in the other vehicle.
No charges have been laid over the fatal smash, with police saying investigations are still on-going.
However, the Najim-Phillips family are struggling to understand what they see as slow progress in the case.
“I don’t get how the driver is still out there after what they caused. It just doesn’t make sense,” Daelyn Phillips said.
“Our daughter is on life support and will never walk again. We have to go through all of this when we were just driving home from a trip — it’s just turned our world upside down.
“We are just angry at everything we’ve been going through and still no one has been charged,” she said.
A police spokesperson said inquiries were continuing and they were not able to give an indication of whether anyone will be charged — as that will depend on the outcome of the investigation.
Despite the odds, Amirah has shocked both her family and doctors with her strength and will to recover after being taken off the breathing ventilator last Wednesday.
“The consultants from Starship hospital’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit [PICU] are super stunned at the progress Amirah has made since being off the breathing tube,” Phillips said.
“It has been one week off the ventilator and she is still going so strong.”
It was only two days later that she was also shifted out of PICU and on to the children’s ward.
“It’s quite amazing how kids can bounce back,” Phillips said.
Amirah has not only had improvements with her breathing, but has started to show signs of being able to move her left arm — which has previously been immobile.
While she is still in a halo brace, the family have been told this will be removed in about eight weeks’ time.
“We don’t know what she will be able to move once the halo is taken off. We won’t know until it’s actually off,” Phillips said.
But her daughter is still far from out of the woods.
“She is still needing to be suctioned every hour, and a physio to do the cough assist machine on her three times a day,” Phillips said.
“She still has the oxygen prongs in her nose for extra oxygen, but tonight [Wednesday] they are going to monitor her oxygen levels and look at maybe weaning her off it.
“Also she is not talking yet, but we think it is just swelling from the breathing tube.
“Tomorrow [Thursday] they will actually put a camera down her throat to see if there is any problems and what kind of food she can eat, because she is still getting fed through the feeding tube. She is also still at really high risk of getting an infection or pneumonia, and if she does get that she will have to go back down to PICU — so it will be like a step back.”