Nhulunbuy family thanks Royal Darwin Hospital staff for their ‘little miracle’ baby boy, Davey

THE family of a miracle baby who only had days to live have praised staff at the Royal Darwin Hospital for “pulling off the impossible”

Mum Salome Marika (right) with grandmother Julie Marika and baby Davey, who was flown from Darwin to Melbourne in a humidity crib donated by the Humpty Dumpty Foundation. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

THE family of a miracle baby who only had days to live have praised staff at the Royal Darwin Hospital for “pulling off the impossible” and flying him to Melbourne for lifesaving surgery.

After giving birth to her son Davey on the day Cyclone Marcus hit in Darwin, Nhulunbuy mum Salome Marika was also given the heartbreaking news of his severe lung problems.

Grandmother Gayili Yunupingu Marika said Davey only have days to live because the Royal Darwin Hospital didn’t have the means to treat his respiratory failure.

“I would hold on to him with my little finger every night and just weep and pray by his hospital cot,” she said.

“Every single day was painful and uncertain for my daughter and I.

“But I told to myself to hold on to hope.

“I knew he had the strength to hold on if he was given a chance to live.

“And even in the eye of the storm, our Davey found a way to make it through.”

Royal Darwin Hospital paediatrician Louise Woodward said Davey’s only hope of survival was to get treatment interstate and they flew him out to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital for surgery at two-weeks-old.

“Our neonatal department here in Darwin has the best technology available for a population of our size, we can manage premature babies and most babies with problems at birth but we can’t manage babies who need heart surgery or if they go into respiratory failure like baby Davey did,” she said.

“The only treatments available for those babies are interstate but we haven’t had the equipment needed to make those trips until now.”

She said the Humpty Dumpty Foundation donated a neonatal transport incubator to the hospital in January and Davey had been the first to use it.

“Transport like that, with a baby on a high frequency ventilator, has never been done over that distance before in Australia,” she said.

“It was joint mission between our two hospitals to get him down to Melbourne but it went really well, and he’s now going to make a full recovery as a result.”

Ms Marika and her son arrived back at the Royal Darwin Hospital on Monday.

She said she looks forward taking him home in about a month’s time and showing him the beaches of their home in Galupa.

Originally published as Nhulunbuy family thanks Royal Darwin Hospital staff for their ‘little miracle’ baby boy, Davey