Community rallies around six week old baby Matilda in GoFundMe as she fights for life in the Royal Children’s Hospital

A “bit of a cough” turned into a nightmare as six-week-old Matilda kept getting sicker and sicker — and now she’s fighting for life in the NICU.

Six week old baby Matilda is fighting for life in the Royal Children’s Hospital. Picture: Supplied.

When little Swan Hill baby Matilda started to develop a bad cough, doctors at first thought it was a virus that would pass on its own.

But the four-week premature baby only got more and more unwell, “turning purple and blue” during coughing fits until she was flown to the Royal Children’s Hospital on March 3 as her oxygen levels dropped dangerously low.

“Within a few hours of being in the hospital in Swan Hill she went downhill very, very quickly,’ mother Kelsey Looney said.

“It was pretty terrifying.”

Kelsey Looney and Baby Matilda. Picture: Supplied.

Royal children’s Hospital doctors worked through the night to stabilise Matilda as she struggled to breathe, with liquid in her lungs, diagnosed with pneumonia and whooping cough.

Doctors had to give her muscle relaxants because she was “fighting so hard” trying to pull the tubes out of her mouth, and has been in the NICU ever since.

“It was really hard to see her like that,” Ms Looney said.

The couple weren’t able to see their baby for several days or stay in hospital accommodation because they could be carriers for whooping cough, a contagious and deadly disease for vulnerable babies, and were forced to find accommodation nearby at great expense.

Baby Matilda with her dad Jacob Grant. Picture: Supplied.

Baby Matilda is stable in the NICU, but remains in a vulnerable condition “susceptible to everything”.

The couple are now fundraising to help shoulder the financial burden of being unable to work while they stay at their baby’s bedside four hours from home, with more than $1300 raised on GoFundMe.

“The cost of having to stay in Melbourne while still paying all the bills at home is very hard to manage. We are just asking for a bit of help to allow us to focus on our daughter while she recovers.”