Maddison Hunter defies odds despite one lung and heart defect

Born with her heart on the wrong side and one lung, one year-old Maddison Hunter has had a rough start to life. But the plucky infant has overcome all the odds in her way as she fights to live.

Little Maddison Hunter has just turned one but she doesn’t miss a beat.

When doctors approach her in the intensive care unit of Westmead Hospital to listen to her tiny heart she cries in her inimitable way hoping to turn them away for fear of undergoing more operations.

Born with a heart on the wrong side of her chest and just one lung, she has spent almost all of her short life in intensive care recovering from three delicate lifesaving surgeries and next week will be her fourth.

“She is fine with nurses but when the doctors come she screams her heart out because she knows they will probably say she will need another operation,” her mother Sam Kelly, 31, a nurse, said.

“For someone born with a heart on the right side of her chest, she’s got a very strong heart, she’s very sassy, she’s a big character and doesn’t miss a trick.”

One year old Maddison Hunter is in the fight for her life as she prepares for a fourth lifesaving operation. Picture: Supplied.

When Maddison was born with dextrocardia, acongenitalcondition in which the heart is pointed toward the right side of the chest, and with a pulmonary agenesis, - the complete absence of a right lung, including bronchi, bronchioles, vasculature, and respiratory parenchyma – hospital experts said she was one of the highest risk babies they had cared for. The prognosis was “not good,” they said.

She has survived three major operations. Picture: Supplied

Maddison has spent most of her short life in hospital. Picture: Supplied

While dextrocardia, a condition that affects only 0.22 per cent of the population, is not considered dangerous in itself, it is usually associated with other anatomical abnormalities. Any surgery with the added complication of having just one lung increases the risk of death.

In Maddison’s case she had complete tracheal rings, a birth defect where cartilage of the trachea doesn’t grow causing the windpipe to collapse.

It meant he required a laryngoscopy and bronchoscopy (LBO), an examination of the voice box (larynx) and windpipe (trachea and bronchi) three months after being born.

A lifesaving slide tracheoplasty to reconstruct her trachea four days before her first birthday, on April 9, took her off the critical list.

Five days later, an obstructed airway saw her rushed into theatre again for another LBO.

Next week she will undergo a two-year airway dilation procedure in theatre and there are many more expected to come in the expected months.

Maddison celebrated her first birthday in hospital at Westmead. Picture: Supplied

Parents Sam and Stuart with little Maddison.. Picture: Supplied

Each time, her parents Sam and Stuart Hunter have hoped for the best. And every time Maddison has come through unscathed.

But their distress has been compounded by the fact Sam has given up her job to be with her daughter who splits her time between Children’s Hospital Westmead and Ronald McDonald House adjacent to the hospital, a charity organisation which accommodates parents of long term suck children.

The mortgage for family house in Theresa Park near Camden and bills still need to be paid as Maddison faces another year in hospital.

“It’s a massive stress and financial burden on us but we have to be with our daughter,” said Sam.

Sam Kelly will keep fighting to give little Maddison the best chance at life. Picture: Supplied.

“As a nurse it’s hard for me because I know exactly the surgical procedures that Maddison is going through, it hurts seeing our little girl in pain, she’s so tiny and already she’s had three surgeries and had her chest cut open and, while the scars won’t hold her back, she’s a fighter, she knows there’s still a long way to go before it’s over,” Sam said.

“Doctors said it didn’t look good when she was first born, that there was every chance she would not pull through a big surgery, but we are praying each day and she’s still with us.

“She’s contracted some infections and because of her heart she’s at higher risk of getting sick but somehow keeps fighting.

“We cannot thank Westmead Hospital staff and surgeons enough for saving her life and the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Westmead.”

To help Maddison in her fight for life by donating towards her medical bills, visit this link here.

Originally published as Maddison Hunter defies odds despite one lung and heart defect