Shock at toddler’s diagnosis
The bruises on her body were at first blamed on the boisterous adventures expected of any toddler.
Now, sitting inside the Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland, father Brad Rapira struggles to hold back his tears.
His 22-month-old daughter Ahurewa lays in a hospital bed attached to a drip. She’s undergone multiple blood transfusions just in case doctors need to operate.
She’s just starting her life, Rapira said. She’s too young to have leukaemia.
Her wha¯nau had noticed bruising on her skin from when she was 6 months old, but never thought it could be an indication of a severe illness.
After a test showed Ahurewa had a low cell count in her blood work, Rapira and his partner Rachael Potaka drove through the night from Palmerston North to Starship hospital. Ahurewa was last week diagnosed with Acute Megakaryoblastic Leukaemia, a rare form of the disease that typically takes form in young children.
A clinical social worker at hakea Air Force base, Rapira was trying to remain medically minded about his daughter’s condition, but the pain rang through his voice as he talked through the next steps in Ahurewa’s journey. ‘‘We love her, and we just keep her as comfortable as possible.
Her wha¯nau, who have researched alternative therapies to chemotherapy, had been criticised for considering a dual treatment of chemotherapy and medicinal cannabis because there was a view children shouldn’t have ‘‘those sorts of drugs’’ in their systems. But Rapira said children shouldn’t have cancer either.
Regulations supporting the use of medicinal cannabis came into effect on April 1, and an expert in the controversial treatment was travelling to Starship to assess Ahurewa.
A Givealittle page has been created for Ahurewa’s fight against leukaemia so Rapira and Potaka can focus solely on their daughter’s recovery.
As of yesterday, the page has raised more than $5500 from almost 100 donors.