Mudgeeraba woman Jessika Owens fights for her life after severe pneumonia battle
The community is rallying around a young “kind and funny” Gold Coast woman who lives with cystic fibrosis. How you can help.
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The community is rallying to help a young Gold Coast woman who lives with cystic fibrosis and is in the fight of her life after a severe case of pneumonia.
Jessika Owens from Mudgeeraba spent six weeks at Brisbane’s Mater Hospital, including two in intensive care.
The 23-year-old was admitted to hospital in mid-May due to pneumonia but her condition continued to deteriorate.
Her dad Anthony Owens said his daughter suffered a “perfect storm” of medical complications including pseudomonas, which is a type of lung infection, pneumonia, rhinovirus and carbon dioxide poisoning.
“Her lungs had fluid build up which prevented them from doing their second most important job,” he said.
“The first is getting oxygen into the blood and the second is breathing out carbon dioxide.
“Her lungs weren’t able to do that because she was fighting so hard to breathe that her lungs weren’t expelling carbon dioxide.”
Ms Owens had three medical emergencies while in the hospital’s general ward and a fourth that led to being admitted to intensive care and put on a ventilator.
There were two nights where Ms Owen’s life was on a “knife-edge”.
“That was the period where we didn’t know if she would come home,” Mr Owens said.
“It was terrifying and very confronting.”
Ms Owens is currently receiving treatment at home but has a long road to recovery ahead.
“She has breathing assistance at night ... and an awful lot of oral medication like steroids, antibiotics and vitamin supplements,” Mr Owens said.
“She’s had a few good days ... it’s difficult to not get ahead because she still has a long way to go but every win is a win.”
Ms Owens was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that impacts the lungs and digestive system, just a few weeks after she was born.
Mr Owens said they don’t know what his daughter’s “new normal” would look like.
“We probably won’t know that for a couple of months until we can know what her baseline level of health and independence will be,” he said.
Mr Owens said Ms Owens had “already had so much taken from her” after she battled a rare cancer in 2017.
“It’s non-fatal but it puts lesions on the bones and weakens them so she has a compression fracture in her spine,” he said.
Mr Owens said his daughter was kind, funny and obsessed with the Liverpool Football Club and Sherlock Holmes.
A Go Fund Me page, called Jessika’s fight for life and dreams, has been launched to help Ms Owens and her family cover medical bills to support her recovery and allow her parents to stay by her side without financial stress.
More than $31,000 had been raised as of Monday, with a goal of $80,000.
“The support has been overwhelming,” Mr Owens said.