Unable to eat, Georgie is fighting for her life
Georgie Ferris is so thin people assume she has an eating disorder. Instead, she has a rare and debilitating digestive condition. Her best hope for a normal life lies with a specialist in Melbourne.
In the past four years, the already petite woman has struggled to keep any food down, has lost 15 kilograms, and had three bowel operations.
She was 17 years old when she started to experience the first symptoms of what would develop into a severe digestive condition.
She now lives off supplement drinks and custard, and weighs 41 kilograms.
In 2015, Ferris was diagnosed with gastroparesis, a condition where the stomach is unable to empty itself of food properly.
She said normally 100 per cent of food moves from the stomach to the small intestine over three hours.
However, for Ferris, only 18 per cent of food is digested in that time frame.
This causes nausea, vomiting and blockages in her bowel.
When the pain is severe, she is struck by seizures.
She described her stomach as feeling like it was a ‘‘facecloth that was being wrung out’’.
‘‘It is a pretty debilitating illness, it is incredibly hard to live with.’’
The first signs that something was not right with her bowel started four years ago.
After more than a year battling digestive problems, Ferris was told a colostomy was her only option. It involved taking a section of her large intestine to form an opening in her abdomen, which acted as an outlet for waste.
She said she was ‘‘petrified’’ of having to live with a colostomy bag.
She didn’t want to have the surgery, but her family helped convince her it would give her the best chance of a normal life.
But the surgery didn’t go according to plan and she spent close to two weeks seriously ill in hospital.
Over the next few months she had another two operations to correct the problems, the last to reverse the colostomy and create a ileostomy, a similar procedure which involved a section of the small intestine being used to form an opening in her abdomen.
The third surgery took a ‘‘massive toll’’ on her body. A blockage in her stomach caused her to go into full gastro-intestinal failure.
She spent eight weeks at Auckland Hospital.
For the next 10 months, she was fed through self-administered IV nutrition.
But she was able to live more of a normal life and she put on weight.
However, she developed infections in the Hickman line used to administer the IV nutrition. It then developed into a serious blood infection which saw her rushed to Auckland Hospital by air ambulance.
She refused to have another Hickman Line inserted due to the risk of developing blood poisoning again.
The next stage is working out how to get the nutrition she needs.
‘‘The reality is people with this condition do starve to death.’’
With treatment options exhausted in New Zealand, Ferris said seeing a gastroenterologist in Melbourne who specialised in the condition was her best hope.
‘‘There’s no cure for this illness, it is all about managing it.’’
The costs of the trip were estimated to be about $20,000 and Ferris said that while it was difficult to ask for help, she couldn’t afford to lose any more weight.
Her family have started a Givealittle page and are holding fundraisers to help get her to Melbourne for treatment. – Fairfax NZ