Mildura community supports battling baby Malani Rose Harris

The Sunraysia community has thrown its support behind a baby who has spent most of her young life in intensive care.

Malani Rose Harris has spent most of her young life in intensive care at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been launched for her.

The wider Mildura region is doing everything it can to help a tiny bub, struggling in intensive care since she was born.

Born in Mildura on August 24, 2023, Malani Rose Harris has spent most of her young life in the intensive care unit of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

The six-week-old has been placed on a breathing tube since her birth after suffering a collapsed lung and fluid build up in the kidneys.

Malani’s health issues have led to “a cascade of events and multiple surgeries”, according to Keisha Clarke, the organiser of the GoFundMe appeal on behalf of parents Josh Harris and Ashlee Coombs.

Further complications have led to Malani’s kidneys only operating at 5 per cent requiring her to have peritoneal dialysis while also awaiting kidney transplants.

She underwent another surgery which means she “may be fed through her stomach”.

Ms Coombes, Malani’s mother, said doctors on Wednesday diagnosed the six-week-old with peritonitis, and put her on antibiotics for at least two weeks.

The infection has caused her daughter’s heart rate to reach above two hundred beats per minute.

Malani’s condition has meant parents Josh and Ashlee have been unable to work and see their other son back home in Mildura.

Ms Clarke said the family had a “long road ahead”, having to learn dialysis and how to feed by the peg tube before they could bring their young daughter back home to Mildura and be reunited “as a family.”

The family is expected to remain in Melbourne for at least two to three months before they can return home.

All funds raised will go towards bills, fuel and medical costs, aiming at alleviating some of the stresses the family are currently experiencing.

The fundraiser has raised more than $2500 so far, more than half its goal of $5000.