Fresh Hope For "Thumbelina"
Will US specialist save her life?
A little girl dubbed "Thumbelina" due to her rare form of dwarfism is travelling to the US in the hope a specialist can save her life.
Helena Lang, from Sydney, has Diastrophic Dysplasia dwarfism, and has nearly died three times.
Parents Jaime Jenkins and Jakob Lang say doctors in Australia are stumped as to how to treat their daughter so they're raising money so a specialist in the US can treat her scoliosis, cleft palate, club feet and small chest cavity.
Aged one, Helena is struggling to breathe and her parents are considering heart surgery after several "trial and error' procedures in Australia.
'If we don't go through with the (chest) surgery, she will continue to have the compressed airway and in blunt honesty, we aren't too sure how long her little body could continue on working so hard to breathe," said Jaime.
Both Jaime and Jakob are almost six foot tall and had no idea they both carried the same dwarfism gene until a scan during pregnancy revealed the condition.
Source: New Idea
I grew up in New Zealand, moved to London in my early 20s to work on British newspapers then moved to Australia when I was pregnant with my first child. I write a newspaper column, celebrity interviews and a parenting page. I also do TV and radio commentary, podcasting and host corporate events. I’ve also published a book on parenting, The Smallest Things. However, my greatest role – and the one I’m most proud of – is parenting my daughters, Eliza and Lilibelle, who are 17 and 14.
