One Dollar Warriors - Fight For Kylani

Ted and Haylee contacted One Dollar Warriors to ask us if we can help save the life of their 21 month old daughter, Kylani.

Kylani was born on the 9th of April 2013 and 3 days later, the family were sent home with a happy and healthy baby girl.

Kylani grew month by month into a beautiful little girl. She had all the regular checks and Plunket and was meeting all the normal milestones. Everything seemed perfect for the family.

At 10 months old everything changed when Kylani started vomiting, choking and stopped breathing. A family member performed CPR and managed to revive their little girl. After reaching hospital Kylani began having seizures. Tests were done and they were sent home armed with anti-convulsant medication.

Things looked up for a little while and Kylani showed signs of improvement. She was walking around the furniture, loved playing outside and was eating everything and anything.

When she turned 1 she had a couple of small seizures so an MRI was scheduled. The results showed a thin lining on her brain that was causing the seizures. Kylani had her medication increased and again they were sent home to wait for the test results.

Over the coming months Kylani’s seizures became more frequent and violent, with her whole body convulsing and her eyes rolling back in her head. They were told to increase her medication further - but the seizures continued to get worse and became even more frequent.

After having more tests at Starship hospital doctors could still couldn’t give a definitive answer, however believed she may have a condition known as “shrinking brain”.

When they left Starship Hospital, 15 month old Kylani was having 7 different types of seizures and taking 10 different medications administered 3 times a day.

Kylani’s body has now visibly deteriorated both mentally and physically. She can no longer sit up on her own and needs to be fed through a syringe. Their little girl is fading away right before their eyes. Kylani now needs 24/7 care and is far from the bubbly little girl she was for the first 10 months of her life.

Now, through her parents dedication and extensive research, they have discovered that Stem Cell treatment could be the answer they need to both keep Kylani alive and give her better quality of life.

In New Zealand this treatment is considered controversial in the same way the doctors here believed I shouldn’t have had the operation that saved my life. I’m not a doctor but I do know that due to our population size, our doctors just don’t see the variety and number of cases they do in larger countries and therefore don’t have the same level of exposure or experience when it comes to things that we might consider as outside their comfort zone.

Let me ask you, If you were told your child wasn’t going to get any better in this situation, how far would you go to save their life?

Kylani's family need to raise $50,000 in order to get the treatment. So far, through their own incredible fundraising efforts, they have raised $24,000, but they've literally hit a brick wall.

So Warriors, we need to help them raise the last $26,000 to get Kylani to Shenzhen in South China so she can receive the treatment she desperately needs. Please take just a few minutes out of your day to help save Kylani’s life.

You will probably never really know how much this means to Kylani, or her Mum and Dad but trust me they will be eternally grateful.