Help for Kirsten & family

Dear friends and family, thank you firstly for your amazing support on here and your generous donations and apologies that I have not done an update before now. I didn't know that there was even a page to log into until this last week as this whole thing was very kindly set up by Liz Hancock and I just sent her my details and she did the rest.

Most of you are on the Kirsten updates page on WhatsApp and so apologies to you as this is going to be a repeat of some of the info but for those who aren't on there then this is the state of play.

Kirsten contracted Invasive Group A Streptococcus (probably from the plane over to NZ on the 1st Jan) and it quickly tracked from her throat on the 4th Jan to her ear and then within a couple of days she went into sepsis and was emergency admitted to hospital in Wellington on the 6th as we were travelling through the country on our way to see Kirsten's mother. It became apparent quickly that she was getting worse and when they did a head C.T and MRI found that the infection had tracked to the surface of her brain and then needed emergency neuro surgery within hours or that to drain the infection. That was on the 8th of Jan following which she was unable to speak and had paralysis through her R side and was without very much cognitive function. This was of course a huge shock to us all and the Drs were also surprised and were not expecting that outcome. She fought for her life in the following weeks as the infection continued and the medical and surgical teams and nurses kept a very close eye on her in the high dependency neuro surgical unit as she was extremely unwell.

There was a big response from all our friends in NZ and UK and our wider whanau here in NZ kicked into action. Hamish and Steve looked after our kids amazingly and friends flew in to help support us and me in looking after Kirsten. It really was amazing how people can catch you when your world is turned upside down and I will never forget it.

It just goes to show how much love there is for Kirsten out there and the number of people she has touched in her life.

So she slowly started to regain her cognitive function and started to say some words. She narrowly avoided needing a second brain operation as they got on top of the infection and she is such a fighter she started getting better. Then a couple of weeks later she started making huge gains and speech came back and she started moving her R side again and getting power and movement back into her R leg. We were inundated with visitors at the hospital and she was able to recognise and start to speak with and engage with people in short bursts. Her recovery continued and she was well enough to be air ambulanced to Nelson hospital where she continued her A+ recovery and spent a few days in the recovery unit and was then discharged home (suddenly) 12 days ago.

It has been an unbelievable journey to this point and the dust really hasn't settled yet but we are working through every day with our container of stuff from the UK having arrived a week ago to make some sense of our lovely new home and for Kirsten to start to work out how to begin to come to terms with what has happened and keep moving forwards.

She is taking things slowly, as her recovery requires a lot of rest and she can easily get overwhelmed with situations and too many decisions at this stage but she is improving every day and it will be a journey that continues over the next few months and probably couple of years to full recovery. Our children and I are just so happy to have her home and for us all to be starting to heal and making plans again as a family. Once she gets discharged by the hospital teams who are still having input and regular bloods etc despite her not being in hospital then I can think about getting into some work here and start earning again.

Your contributions to us as a family have been so gratefully received and one never thinks this sort of thing is going to happen to them and leave them in this situation but life has a way of throwing things out of left field (as we have all found out with Covid) and you just have to find a way. Thank you again, we will be in touch as things move on.

Lots of love Finn, Kirsten, Naomi and Sam.