Aussie mum issues a warning to her parents after her little girl dies from disease that usually only impacts adults
An Aussie mum and leading doctor have warned parents to watch out for rarely seen symptoms after a little girl suffered a brain bleed while at daycare last week.
Little Allira Gunn went to daycare healthy, but tragically passed away from multiple brain bleeds caused by a malformed blood vessel – a condition most parents wouldn’t think could affect their child.
Allira woke from her usual daytime nap, but was disoriented and her carers had no idea what was wrong so they called an ambulance and she was taken to Gold Coast Hospital.
However, it was too late after the two-year-old suffered a brain haemorrhage and couldn’t be saved.
At first, mum Anna Casper thought a spider may have bitten her daughter or that she ate something bad, but things changed very quickly.
‘She’d never had any health problems. I just dropped her off like any other morning then I got that phone call,’ Ms Casper told Daily Mail Australia.
‘When they did the MRI they discovered she had a massive brain bleed down near her brain stem. Then she had another brain bleed. They’re not sure what set it off.
‘They said her brain swelled very quickly and was pushing on her spinal cord as well and it just shut her whole body down.
Allira, 3, had a severe brain bleed and was dead soon after waking from a nap
Allira’s older brother Rylan, 7, who adored his little sister
‘It went form thinking they could do something for her to them saying there was nothing they could do.’
Dr Lisa Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of the Stroke Foundation told Daily Mail Australia that while brain bleeds are rare, they’re still a top ten cause of death in children.
‘It’s small numbers but it can often be catastrophic or in the very least absolutely life changing,’ Dr Murphy said.
‘It changes people’s lives in an instant. What that family is going through at the moment is absolutely terrible.
‘It’s turned their world upside down. I’m not surprised how shocking this is because it’s devastating.’
Meanwhile, this week is the Stroke Foundation’s Childhood Stroke Awareness Week.
The foundation decided it needed to raise awareness about childhood stroke because ‘people just don’t know about it.’
Chief Executive Officer of the Stroke Foundation Dr Lisa Murphy says parents need to be more aware of the potential dangers of stroke in toddlers
‘You think stroke and you think granny or grandad. You don’t think of babies and children and we need to start talking about it,’ Dr Murphy said.
‘We need to raise awareness in parents about childhood stroke.’
Dr Murphy said identifying a stroke in a toddler was ‘tricky’ but vital to saving the baby’s life.
‘The thing about stroke is it happens often in an instant with no warning signs,’ she said.
‘The key is if something happens, act on it immediately. That doesn’t mean call your GP, it means call an ambulance.
‘Every minute after a stroke 1.9million brain cells die so the sooner you get to hospital the better.’
Interestingly, stroke is more common in newborns than older children.
‘In newborns it’s when those congenital conditions appear,’ Dr Murphy said.
A brain hemorrhage, also known as a brain bleed, is a life-threatening condition that occurs when there is bleeding in the brain
‘It’s really tricky but things you can look out for are seizures, irritability, vomiting and excessive sleepiness.
‘The other thing is if they’re not moving one side of their body because stroke happens on one side of the brain.’
Ms Casper and husband Adrian are currently planning Allira’s funeral and the family has set up a GoFundMe page to raise just $4,000 to cover the costs.
Allira has a stepbrother who is 16 and older brother Rylan, 7, who adored his little sister.
‘It’s a very difficult time. We’re just taking things a day at a time at the moment,’ Ms Casper said.
