Help Luca Fight For His Life
Donation protected
Luca’s Story
Hello everyone far and wide, my name is Rebecca and I am writing this story on behalf of a long lasting friend who needs a helping hand.
This story is about a little baby boy who is having the type of rough start in life that hits a whole community and Luca is nothing short of a fighter who deserves the best chance that life and support can offer to him.
Mara and her family have gone through so much in such a short amount of time and I have felt her pain and worry that no mother can really ever imagine until going through something so large.
Mara has two beautiful daughters and now a gorgeous son Luca, luca was born on the 5th of October 2022 7 weeks early. Classed as premature this came with typical obstacles for a prem such as low sugars, jaundice, slow weight gain etc. Luca spent 6 weeks in hospital being cared for by doctors and nurses and mara spent 6 weeks trying to navigate life as a hospital parent with 3 kids and also needing to provide an income for her family.
Finally they got the all clear to go home and things started to look up and mara then could finally start to settle in with her little family of 5.
Unfortunately only 4 days into being home luca took a turn for the worse. He stopped wanting to feed to the point where mara and her partner were unable to wake Luca.
Mara and Luca’s dad made the decision to rush luca into hospital where luca ended up having a feeding tube inserted and back into a hospital bed straight away. During this time the nurses ran some routine tests on little Luca such as blood tests, urine sample, nose swabs which all came back normal, they then ran his blood sugar which showed 1.9 that should have been between 3.5 and 7.5.
Mara described the moment as if it was like a movie everything started to kick into gear and nurses and doctors started poking, pinching, stabbing and squeezing poor little Luca. Finally they were able to get a cannula into him and pumped him with fluids/glucose and his sugars returned to a normal level.
Two weeks in the paediatrician ward went by and Luca’s Blood sugars kept dipping and he constantly had tests after tests ran on him. Originally they has put it down to medication mara had been taking which was potentially affecting her milk supply so she had to stop expressing milk and had to heart breakingly throw away 6 LITRES of breast milk.
But the doctors were still unsure and not convinced this was the full reason that luca was so unwell. Luca continued to undergo so many blood tests, ultrasounds, lumber puncture and finally a MRI. The MRI showed something that had luca sent straight to another hospital an hour away.
Once arriving at this hospital Luca’s parents were finally given the diagnosis of HYPOPITUITARY. Hypopituitarism is when you have a short supply (deficiency) of one or more of the pituitary hormones (located in the brain). These hormone deficiencies can affect any number of your body's routine functions, such as growth, blood pressure or reproduction.
This brings us to the 12th of December 2022, finally once again Luca and his parents got to go home with a feeding tube and ALOT of medication just in time for Christmas and with a huge journey and a whole lot of appointments ahead of them.
These appointments included,
- Endocrinology - an hour away
- MRI (sedated) - an hour away + 2 nights in hospital
- Speech - hometown
- Dietitian- hometown
- Paediatrician- hometown
In February, Mara went back to work part time.
And tried to enrol Luca in daycare but as the daycare where her other kids go have never had a child with a feeding tube and after every bit of information plus training courses they declined his enrolment until he was tube free. This put a huge amount of financial stress on mara and her family with an isolated feeling of one thing after the other.
Suddenly Sickness hit Luca’s household and he got hit with rhinovirus and parainfluenza. He spent a week by himself in hospital as Mara and her Partner worked as well as look after their other kids. After a week he came home.. for one night.
Mara to call an ambulance the next morning as the owlet sock alarmed that Lucas oxygen was at 74%. At the hospital he was on 3L per KG of oxygen, which is too extreme for their local hospital so Luca was sent an hour away.
He had pneumonia and spend 4 days in the PICU. Finally home again, but two days later start doing funny things with his eyes. So they took him but to emergency, they did yet another head ultrasound. It showed that the ventricles in his brain were enlarged.
The next day they received the call from our paediatrician confirming he has hydrocephalus and we will need to see the neurosurgeons. Hydrocephalus What it is: A build-up of fluid in the cavities deep within the brain. The extra fluid puts pressure on the brain and can cause brain damage. It's most common in infants and older adults.
Treatment: Ventriculoperitoneal shunt - Ventriculoperitoneal shunting is surgery to treat excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the cavities (ventricles) of the brain (hydrocephalus).
The last 3 weeks they have had appointments with - speech, dieticians, ENT, eye test, blood tests, genetic testing, and more.
Bringing us to today, Luca is seeing the neurosurgeons this week and genetic testing came back with a missing chromosome…
This family have gone through a life time of stress and worry and luca has a very hard journey ahead of him with surgical procedures to come.
From one mother to another, from one parent to another I ask that you keep this family in your prayers and that if you are able to make even the smallest contribution to Luca and his family to relieve some of the pressures they have had to face and will continue to face no matter how great or small is greatly and humbly appreciated.
Luca’s Fight is our fight and we all stand beside him praying for the life he deserves.
Hello everyone far and wide, my name is Rebecca and I am writing this story on behalf of a long lasting friend who needs a helping hand.
This story is about a little baby boy who is having the type of rough start in life that hits a whole community and Luca is nothing short of a fighter who deserves the best chance that life and support can offer to him.
Mara and her family have gone through so much in such a short amount of time and I have felt her pain and worry that no mother can really ever imagine until going through something so large.
Mara has two beautiful daughters and now a gorgeous son Luca, luca was born on the 5th of October 2022 7 weeks early. Classed as premature this came with typical obstacles for a prem such as low sugars, jaundice, slow weight gain etc. Luca spent 6 weeks in hospital being cared for by doctors and nurses and mara spent 6 weeks trying to navigate life as a hospital parent with 3 kids and also needing to provide an income for her family.
Finally they got the all clear to go home and things started to look up and mara then could finally start to settle in with her little family of 5.
Unfortunately only 4 days into being home luca took a turn for the worse. He stopped wanting to feed to the point where mara and her partner were unable to wake Luca.
Mara and Luca’s dad made the decision to rush luca into hospital where luca ended up having a feeding tube inserted and back into a hospital bed straight away. During this time the nurses ran some routine tests on little Luca such as blood tests, urine sample, nose swabs which all came back normal, they then ran his blood sugar which showed 1.9 that should have been between 3.5 and 7.5.
Mara described the moment as if it was like a movie everything started to kick into gear and nurses and doctors started poking, pinching, stabbing and squeezing poor little Luca. Finally they were able to get a cannula into him and pumped him with fluids/glucose and his sugars returned to a normal level.
Two weeks in the paediatrician ward went by and Luca’s Blood sugars kept dipping and he constantly had tests after tests ran on him. Originally they has put it down to medication mara had been taking which was potentially affecting her milk supply so she had to stop expressing milk and had to heart breakingly throw away 6 LITRES of breast milk.
But the doctors were still unsure and not convinced this was the full reason that luca was so unwell. Luca continued to undergo so many blood tests, ultrasounds, lumber puncture and finally a MRI. The MRI showed something that had luca sent straight to another hospital an hour away.
Once arriving at this hospital Luca’s parents were finally given the diagnosis of HYPOPITUITARY. Hypopituitarism is when you have a short supply (deficiency) of one or more of the pituitary hormones (located in the brain). These hormone deficiencies can affect any number of your body's routine functions, such as growth, blood pressure or reproduction.
This brings us to the 12th of December 2022, finally once again Luca and his parents got to go home with a feeding tube and ALOT of medication just in time for Christmas and with a huge journey and a whole lot of appointments ahead of them.
These appointments included,
- Endocrinology - an hour away
- MRI (sedated) - an hour away + 2 nights in hospital
- Speech - hometown
- Dietitian- hometown
- Paediatrician- hometown
In February, Mara went back to work part time.
And tried to enrol Luca in daycare but as the daycare where her other kids go have never had a child with a feeding tube and after every bit of information plus training courses they declined his enrolment until he was tube free. This put a huge amount of financial stress on mara and her family with an isolated feeling of one thing after the other.
Suddenly Sickness hit Luca’s household and he got hit with rhinovirus and parainfluenza. He spent a week by himself in hospital as Mara and her Partner worked as well as look after their other kids. After a week he came home.. for one night.
Mara to call an ambulance the next morning as the owlet sock alarmed that Lucas oxygen was at 74%. At the hospital he was on 3L per KG of oxygen, which is too extreme for their local hospital so Luca was sent an hour away.
He had pneumonia and spend 4 days in the PICU. Finally home again, but two days later start doing funny things with his eyes. So they took him but to emergency, they did yet another head ultrasound. It showed that the ventricles in his brain were enlarged.
The next day they received the call from our paediatrician confirming he has hydrocephalus and we will need to see the neurosurgeons. Hydrocephalus What it is: A build-up of fluid in the cavities deep within the brain. The extra fluid puts pressure on the brain and can cause brain damage. It's most common in infants and older adults.
Treatment: Ventriculoperitoneal shunt - Ventriculoperitoneal shunting is surgery to treat excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the cavities (ventricles) of the brain (hydrocephalus).
The last 3 weeks they have had appointments with - speech, dieticians, ENT, eye test, blood tests, genetic testing, and more.
Bringing us to today, Luca is seeing the neurosurgeons this week and genetic testing came back with a missing chromosome…
This family have gone through a life time of stress and worry and luca has a very hard journey ahead of him with surgical procedures to come.
From one mother to another, from one parent to another I ask that you keep this family in your prayers and that if you are able to make even the smallest contribution to Luca and his family to relieve some of the pressures they have had to face and will continue to face no matter how great or small is greatly and humbly appreciated.
Luca’s Fight is our fight and we all stand beside him praying for the life he deserves.
Organizer and beneficiary
Rebecca Martin
Organizer
Burpengary, QLD
Mara Coles
Beneficiary