Father’s urgent warning after rare illness hospitalises daughter
Parents of five-year-old Indiana thought she just had the flu, but soon discovered it was much worse. Now they’re urging others to know the signs of the rare brain condition.
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A Smithton father wants parents to know the signs of a rare and devastating neurological condition after his five-year-old daughter, Indiana, was suddenly hospitalised in Hobart.
Andrew Fisher and his family were at a camp in Tasmania’s North-West when Indiana first showed flu-like symptoms.
Within days they turned alarming with Indiana becoming disoriented and confused about where she was.
The next morning, she wouldn’t wake up.
Indie was eventually sent to the Royal Hobart Hospital where she is fighting Acute Necrotising Encephalopathy (ANE), a rare brain condition that causes the immune system to attack the brain.
“She’s gone from a bubbly little five-year-old girl, to a girl that can’t really do anything at the moment,” Mr Fisher said.
Faced with a long and uncertain road to recovery, the Fisher family has relocated to Hobart to be by Indiana’s side.
“They’ve given us a prognosis that she could be down there for four to six weeks. This was three weeks ago,” Mr Fisher said.
“But I think it’s going to be longer because she’s got to get through a whole heap of her rehab and her physio to get to a point where they’ll send it to Burnie, which is closer to home.”
Faced with relearning everything, Mr Fisher said it could be years before his daughter gets back to where she was before.
“The immune system has attacked the brain and caused damage to nearly every single part. It’s just caused her to go to a state of needing to relearn everything, she can’t talk, can’t move, can’t show us expressions.”
Despite the complete change to their lives, the Fisher family is determined to raise awareness of ANE, especially among parents and carers.
“The only giveaway for ANE is disorientation after they’ve gone through their normal fever and stomach issues, that brain fog or the loss of themselves, that’s when you know,” he said.
“Even though it’s a rare case it’s always good to have that information out there just so parents can pick up on it faster than we did.”
The Fisher family has launched a GoFundMe to help cover living expenses while they stay in Hobart for Indiana’s care.
“It’s something that you never think will happen to you,” Mr Fisher said.
“She’s better now than she was five weeks ago, she’s starting to look like her normal self except we know she’s not yet.”
Originally published as Father’s urgent warning after rare illness hospitalises daughter
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