Fundraiser for our little fighter Wren and family

For those who don’t know, my sisters baby was admitted into ICU over a month ago. Things have been extremely tough for Amanda and Luke through this time. We as family and all their close friends have been rallying around them but we they need more help than we can give them. I have included Wrens story since her birth for you all in the hope that we can get some more support.

As most of you know Amanda and Luke safely delivered a beautiful baby girl on the 14th of June weighing 8 pounds measuring 53.5cm at 11:55. Luna, Amanda, Luke and the rest of the family were so excited to meet little baby Wren. She was perfect. Such a sweet little baby girl that fit perfectly into our family complimenting Amanda and Luke’s life perfectly. She seemed to be perfectly heathy, and we all spent time doing what you do in the first few days just adoring her. Things were going great until Amanda took her for a routine appointment at her doctor. Whilst there Amanda had expressed some concerns they were having. Nothing out of the ordinary of what you would expect from a new born. She was checked over and within minutes the doctor noticed she wasn’t doing well. Her oxygen levels were extremely low and her body was starting to swell. Everything happened very quickly after that. A decision was made by the amazing doctor to call an ambulance and before we knew it their perfect little bundle of joy was in an ambulance, and no one knew what was going on. Amanda and Luke rushed to be with her as she was admitted straight into ICU in a critical condition. At this point they didn’t know what was going on and she spent her first night in the ICU having her vitals checked with many nurses and doctors by her side. All they knew at this point was that her heart wasn’t behaving the way it should and wasn’t pumping blood properly to her organs causing her to be in a very critical state. Amanda stayed at the hospital overnight with Wren while nurses and doctors worked tirelessly to figure out what had gone so wrong, and by the morning the decision was made to have her intubated, sedated, paralyzed and put onto several medications so her little body wasn’t under so much distress trying to do everything on its own. This is when things started to get serious and concerning for us all. To think she was home less than 24 hours ago living a normal life to having a machine do all her breathing for her while she is completely sedated on that huge hospital bed was the most heartbreaking thing for all involved. It was a confronting thing for everyone to see such a tiny baby in such a critical state. The following day she went off for a scan on her heart, with doctors telling us they will be back very soon with some answers as to what was going on so we could look at what to do next to get little Wren better again. And as you would expect we were very hopeful that we would have an answer that would be something we could fix and at this point I think we were all still very hopeful that it was not going to be anything long term and hopefully a virus or something similar. Ill never forget the looks on Amanda and Luke’s face after they had received the news that little Wren’s heart was not coping well at all and things weren’t looking good. The doctors still didn’t know exactly why her heart wasn’t doing well and all we were told was that it wasn’t getting any better. Wrens’ parents stayed right by her side that afternoon hoping she had enough fight in her to stay with us. We didn’t know if she was going to make it through till the next morning or not all the worst-case scenarios started to roll around in everyone’s head. Calls were made to the family that night notifying every one of the possibilities of what could occur overnight while we still had no answers to what was going on. Our little fighter did make it through the night and what a relief it was.

The next week was a roller coaster of ups and downs. One day it seemed like she was improving and the next day it would seem like we hit a brick wall still not knowing why little Wren was in such a critical state. She was stuck laying on this hospital bed with cords and lines running out of every part of her body with a machine breathing for her, vitals being checked constantly, brain activity being monitored, and still on all sorts of medications to keep her stable. We couldn’t hold her anymore, she wasn’t awake to see us, she wasn’t awake to hear us or even know we were there. She was just sedated and being kept alive at this point. Amanda was lucky to have a parent room in this time as she wasn’t comfortable leaving the hospital even for a second in the first few days while Luke did his best to be there for Wren as well as organizing Luna between himself and family members.

The doctors did eventually find she had a virus that may be attacking her heart, and hoped once the virus cleared the heart complications might as well, but it was all a waiting game at this point. We all held onto that tiny bit of hope that she was going to make a full recovery, and this would be a thing of the past very soon so Luna could have her baby sister home and her parents could hold her tight again in the comfort of their home. We really did believe she would recover soon and be with us before we knew it.

Things took a devastating turn in week 2 when the doctors finally found out why her heart was behaving the way it was. Having answers is something we all wanted so bad but none of us were prepared for what we were about to be told. They found from an echo that she had not only Myocarditis and pulmonary hypertension but also more concerningly cardiomyopathy, I won’t go into too much detail of what that exactly is (that’s what the internets for right?). In short it is the leading cause of heart failure and having it at such a young age can have an absolutely devastating result. We are all still day to day dealing with the news and it never gets easier and you don’t just learn to adapt to news like this. Things are still changing day to day and we don’t know what the next week, month or few years will bring us and we can only hope she will be home again with us one day.

Amanda and Luke are 2 people that have worked hard their entire life. Always doing the right thing by everyone and have never taken a handout to get to where they are today with 2 beautiful girls with a beautiful life and a beautiful house they designed themselves to raise their growing family. I personally can say these are two of the best people I know, and they have been dealt one of the absolute worst cards imaginable. No parent is equipped to deal with news like this even if you think you’re the strongest person it is something no parents should have to go through. Luke and Amanda now spend every single day at the hospital with Wren and have even stayed in hotel rooms just to be close to Wren rather than driving all the way home every night while still trying to juggle life with their other beautiful daughter. They are not able to work, as you could imagine. It’s hard to remember what day of the week it is while not knowing if your daughter will be ok today, tomorrow, next week or next year. They don’t want to miss a single thing and we have all been trying to help in every way possible. I personally have had dozens of people ask me what they can do to help, and I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to think of everything imaginable we could all do to make this time easier for them. No amount of money will ever fix this or make things the way they should be but I’m hoping this is something that can make their journey through this time just a little bit less difficult for them.

Anyone that knows Amanda and Luke knows that they don’t take help easy even when they need it and believe me, they did fight me on making this page, but we couldn’t all sit back and do nothing. At the end of the day, they still have a mortgage, bills, day to day living expenses that they need to pay on top of all the extra expenses that have come with this new way of life. If they’re not paying for hotel rooms to be close to Wren, then they are doing the daily drive (over 48kms away) just to be at hospital to then drive back late at night and then do it all over again the next day. They must buy food out almost every day, they need to have babysitters for Luna or have her at the hospital with them and on top of all that neither one of them are currently working due to the circumstances. They have found a way to manage for now living on savings and annual leave, but that money won’t last forever, and I don’t think they should have to make that difficult decision to return to work when things are still so uncertain at the moment. They need to be with their daughter right now and I’m hoping the money raised will allow them to do that. The money raised on this page could help them in so many ways. It could take some pressure off of them having to return to work, it could assist them with their mortgage temporarily, it could allow them to just eat day to day and fill up their petrol tank without having to look at their bank account or with some form of a miracle one day maybe they could enjoy a family holiday with the time they have together if Wren makes it out of hospital so they can put this horrible time behind them even just for a moment. I know no amount of money will ever fix a broken heart, but this is for all the people that wanted to help and didn’t have an avenue for it.

I will do my best to keep everyone updated of any change of circumstances as they come while still trying to respect Amanda and Luke’s privacy with what they want shared and when.

Thank you to all that have taken the time to read this and an even bigger thankyou to everyone that has donated, even if its only $1. Everything counts at a time like this, and I know Amanda and Luke will be forever grateful for your help.