Help Our Kids: Jenna's love of music conquers all

The NZ School of Music student has been able to pursue her dreams of a career in music despite major surgery since birth. Photo / Mark Mitchell

We need you to help us to Help Our Kids. The Herald is running a major campaign to try and raise at least $150,000 for our national children’s hospital, Starship. Each year, more than 9000 Kiwi kids from right throughout the country are treated in Starship’s theatres. Now it’s our turn to help the hospital and staff that Help Our Kids.

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Jenna Searle has never let the loss of most of her left lung at birth hold her back from her love of singing.

"I have been singing for as long as I can remember and ever since I was 13 I wanted to be a singer," says the 19-year-old, who is studying jazz performance at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington.

Jenna says she hopes to become a singer - or make a career in radio broadcasting, music therapy or teaching music.

In high school she took courses at the National Youth Drama School, began writing music and performed principal roles in major school productions.

Jenna was born with an abnormal mass of tissue in her left lung, a rare condition called a cystic adenomatoid malformation, of unknown cause. She also has scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine.

Immediately after her birth at National Women's Hospital, Jenna was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit because of breathing and heart problems. Within hours an operation was done at the Starship children's hospital to remove much of her left lung - the remainder has never functioned properly - after which she spent four months in the Starship ICU.

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She says after three weeks in Starship she suffered a near-fatal failure of her right lung when she inhaled milk because of a reflux problem. To deal with this, her stomach, in an operation at age 3 months, was hooked up to a liquid-feeding tube that emerges through her abdomen - a gastrostomy. She began eating some food with her mouth when she was 3, and although she now consumes a greater proportion of her food orally, Jenna still requires some tube-feeding to maintain her weight.

At age 4, Jenna moved from Christchurch with her family to Hawkes Bay. At 14, she had surgery at Starship to insert titanium rods into her back, which have largely corrected the scoliosis.

Jenna says the spinal problems did not greatly affect her growing up.

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"I can't do physical things like athletics. In high school I didn't let that stop me from giving it my all on school sports days. I suppose I'm lucky to have a passion for music."

Having only one fully functioning lung has not restricted Jenna's singing.

"I have to be realistic about breathing in between phrases in singing, but sometimes I do push myself.

"I have made all my singing teachers aware of this, we've always worked through it and I have always managed to produce a satisfactory performance which leaves the audience stunned."

Jenna faces more treatment. She needs chest reconstruction after ribs on her left side caved in. But for now she continues her studies and is preparing for end-of-year recitals.

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