Summah and Brad Fuller remember the day their daughter was born like it was yesterday.
“We had tried to conceive for two and a half years so she was my miracle baby,” Summah says.
Just over a week ago the couple welcomed their son Brooklyn into the world, but this time they will remember his birth for different reasons.
Brooklyn was born via emergency surgery in Christchurch Hospital at just 27 weeks. Summah was then rushed straight to surgery, having her bowel and colon removed, and is now facing a long uphill battle to recover.
Summah’s rapid health decline began in November when she got Covid-19. She says, from there, her health went downhill.
“A week after I got Covid I was hospitalized with kidney troubles, which was thought to be kidney stones.”
It turned out to not be stones and she was discharged a week later, the day she had her scan and found out they would be welcoming a little brother for 19-month-old Sienna.
A week later Summah was readmitted to hospital with “excruciating” back and stomach pain.
“It was withering pain, it was so much worse than labour,” Summah recalls.
She had a JJ stent inserted, which helps urine drain from the kidney into the bladder. But after struggling to breath she was also diagnosed with a pulminary embolism, or blood clot, on her lung, so was immediately put on blood thinners which, once again, upset her kidney.
Summah’s mother Karen Marfell spent the next six weeks taking Summah back and forth to Nelson Hospital “almost daily”.
“Three weeks ago, I started to get a gripey tummy, I said to Brad, ‘I’m worried about my bowels, something doesn’t feel right’,” Summah says.
On Thursday, 19 January, Summah was readmitted to Nelson Hospital.
By Sunday morning she had rapidly declined.
“I woke up at 1am in excruciating pain. By 8am I was really not good.”
She told her midwife she felt “absolutely terrible”, and from there “things got crazy”.
“There were so many doctors, I was so unwell.
"My skin was swollen, and my eyes were burning.”
The decision was made that Summah needed to go to Christchurch Hospital via lifeflight.
Karen gets emotional remembering the call telling her how sick her daughter had become.
"Because she was in hospital I felt a bit more relaxed so took a weekend away and went to Port Underwood.
“Getting that call telling me I needed to get back to Nelson, it was the longest drive of my life. I was crying the whole way because I didn’t think I was going to make it in time.”
She arrived back just before Summah’s transfer began.
“Seeing your child in that much pain was horrible, I don’t think I realized just how serious it was.”
Karen was told the flight would take 55 minutes and not to expect to hear from anybody for at least a couple of hours.
“I tracked her flight, and it took just 35 minutes, that’s when I knew something must be really wrong, why would they have gone that fast?”
Just an hour and a half after Summah departed Nelson, Karen got a phone call from the surgeon in Christchurch.
Things were not looking good. Brooklyn was going to be born and Summah would head straight for emergency surgery.
“I just said ‘please save my girl’,” Karen recollects.
“The surgeon said, ‘I’m going to try my hardest, but I’m really worried’.”
At around 1am Karen’s phone rang.
“It was a private number and my heart sunk, I picked up and said ‘hello Karen speaking’.”
The response was ‘hi mum, it’s me’.
“I burst into tears,” recalls Karen.
Both Summah and Brooklyn had pulled through. Summah had lost her large bowel and colon, leaving her with an ostomy bag.
The arrival in Christchurch is all a bit of a blur to Summah but she remembers one thing clear as day.
“I remember telling them ‘I have to get through this, I have to get home to my girl’.”
Summah, being a stay-at-home mum, had never spent a night away from Sienna before her health issues began. Now they face at least another five weeks in Christchurch before Brooklyn can be transferred back to Nelson - if all goes well.
“Brooklyn is a trooper, he is amazing,” Summah says, “NICU love him.”
Karen, Brad and Sienna have been in Christchurch ever since, but on Sunday Karen and Sienna had to head home to Nelson.
“It’s been a huge adjustment for everybody,” Summah says.
Karen says Brad and herself will continue to juggle looking after Sienna between visits to Christchurch, but it will take a financial toll.
Both work full-time but their employers have been supportive. A Givealittle page has been set up to help the family during Summah’s recovery.
Summah wants to thank her family, friends and her midwife team for getting her and Brooklyn through.
She also wants to thanks the NICU and Ward A3 in Christchurch Hospital for their care.
You can donate at givealittle.co.nz/cause/assisting-the-fullers-on-the-road-to-recovery
