Mum's desperate plea for donor milk after back-to-back heart attacks

Melissa Crockett-Joyoue has made a desperate plea for donations of breast milk after being floored by two heart attacks that have left her unable to feed her baby. Photo / Supplied

A mother is making a desperate plea for donations of breast milk from her hospital bed after she was floored by two heart attacks that have left her unable to feed her baby.

Melissa Crockett-Joyoue and her 8-month-old baby Hinemārie are currently at Auckland Hospital and are in trouble.

Crockett-Joyoue is running low on donor milk for Hine, who has Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome (FPIES).

"We need milk that is 100 per cent absolutely free of all traces of dairy and eggs, preferably antibiotic free too.

"She cannot drink dairy, goat, sheep, buffalo, soy, rice, oat milk or formula containing that. She has an allergy formula but won't drink it."

Crockett-Joyoue had been exclusively breastfeeding Hine, on a restricted diet, until three weeks ago when she had a heart attack linked to a rare heart condition.

"On November 15 I was at home and I had a heart attack I should not have survived."

The heart attack was a rare cardiac event called Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection.

"I've been on drugs ever since that weren't okay for breastfeeding and also I have to lower my postpartum hormones as they have contributed to my rare heart condition."

Now she is expecting to have bypass surgery next week which would mean she cannot breastfeed for at least another three weeks.

"We went through my freezer stash of frozen expressed milk in the first week of my hospital stay, and have managed to scrape together donor milk from other allergy mums on the same restricted diet so far, but this is very tricky."

Based in Leigh, near Warkworth, the family had been couriering milk from around the country but with Hine's strict requirements, and needing 1000ml a day, it was becoming a near impossible task.

So, on Friday at 11pm before Crockett-Joyoue went to bed she made a Facebook post calling for help.

She woke to find the post had been shared 1000 times, now more than 2000, which created a new problem.

"We've had a huge response to our request for donor milk through the various Facebook pages, but almost no one has any milk available now, so we've run out as at today.

"The problem for me is Facebook, the comments are disappearing and going into threads, and pictures and when its shared on a closed page they don't know that I can't see it.

Now she is directing all offers of help to a new page to make sure no offers of support are lost.

That page is Helping Hearts.

"I'm at risk of another heart attack, so have nurse friends and have allergy mums who are helping co-ordinate some help.

"We are so desperate we are taking it untested and heat treating it."

Mothers Milk NZ is also helping with their effort and Crockett-Joyoue encouraged those wanting to help to check the resources on the website to see if they fit the criteria.

Today her mother and father are driving around Auckland trying to get 100ml here and there.

"So far our best bet has been with other allergy mums (who are used to being hyper vigilant and read all labels etc), and also vegan mums who don't eat dairy or eggs."