Ceena Ngaronga was hours from death suffering liver failure when her aunt Lacoya Finau, below, volunteered to donate part of hers. Photo / Supplied
Ceena Ngaronga was hours from death suffering liver failure when her aunt Lacoya Finau, below, volunteered to donate part of hers. Photo / Supplied
A Kiwi tot has been given the ultimate gift of life from her aunt.
Ceena Ngaronga's family and doctors at Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital feared the precious 2-year-old was hours from death after suffering liver failure two weeks ago.
She had been taken to a GP three weeks earlier suffering a fever, and was diagnosed with slapped cheek, a common childhood infection.
Her parents, Masterton-born Dominique Ngaronga and his partner Cecile Raymundo, took Ceena back to the doctor after her fever continued and her hands and legs swelled. The GP told them to rush their girl to hospital.
Ceena's condition worsened after being admitted, with tests showing her liver was functioning at only 20 per cent. That meant her only hope of survival rested on a liver transplant.
Family and friends volunteered to see if they could be a donor match; an operation that would involve surgeons removing almost a quarter of the donor liver and transplanting it into the little girl's body.
That match was Ceena's aunt, mother-of-two and fellow Kiwi Lacoya Finau, who said the operation took place when doctors said the little girl had just hours to live.
"I just thought, if I don't try she will die and I have to live with that," she told the Herald on Sunday as she recovered in Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
"If that happened to one of my babies, oh my goodness."
The 27-year-old had only a few hours to make a decision that would also put her life on the line, but her only concern was for Ceena, who was born in Australia but whose family say is very much a Kiwi child.
Ceena Ngaronga , seriously ill girl from Australia who received a liver transplant from her aunt Lacoya Finau. Photo / Supplied
"It is a very fine and tricky surgery," Finau said. "What they would do over two days [in preparation] happened in a matter of hours. "[After the surgery] I was worried.
'Where is she? Is her surgery done? Where is she, is she done?' I wouldn't rest until she was stitched up and on the road to recovery."
The transplant was almost called off as doctors feared it may have already been too late to save the youngster, Finau said.
Added family member Hinerake Ngaronga: "Surgeons were on the phone to each other about to call it off. She was showing signs that she was not going to last."
The transplant took eight hours.
Dominique Ngaronga said he would forever be indebted to his sister's life-saving actions.
"It was [shocking]. It was pretty hard," he said. "[I thought] I'm going to lose my baby."
Two weeks on, Ceena is showing signs of improvement.
