Please Help Save My Daughter's Life

Brennagh McKay is my 11 year old daughter. Brennagh was born 3 months premature with Full Trisomy 18.

After living 7 years with a terminal condition Brennagh had a life threatening medical event where she lost over 3/4s of her bowel and wasn't expected to live. After a 6 month hospital stay Brennagh was well enough to return home and enjoy a full life.

Brennagh was enjoying time with 4 of her 5 brothers, going to school and just being a regular little girl enjoying her life.

5 months ago Brennagh's remaining bowel began to shut down. Sometimes long term tube feeding with short gut syndrome can do this.

This is when we discovered the prescribed tube foods were no longer compatible with Brennagh's digestive system and that she has no more medical options available. They don't exist. Waiting to die a slow death at home is not something we want to be doing however in reality this is what is happening. In 5 months we've almost lost the physical girl we knew.

And she is also the only medical case our medical team could find in the world.

My daughter is dying from malnutrition and we need help.

Many mums from around NZ have and still are donating breastmilk which is a temporary measure sustaining her life.

We are so thankful.

Other mums are trying to help us create a suitable diet/formula to put on weight. Difficult to do with a short gut patient. It's a very complex medical field.

We need financial assistance to access specialized medical expertise in the United States from people confident enough to work with us. My daughter is slowly fading away and she has no idea she is dying. It is the most awful thing a parent can endure and I can't give up on her when a child shouldn't die from starvation in New Zealand.

Brennagh's zest for life is still very apparent to all her friends, family and community. She is so loved by us all and has beaten death so many times in her short years. She surprises everyone with her incredible will to live.

Our new discoveries in this field could help many other children in the future.

Thank you for reading our story.

Kathleen McKay