Toddler amputee may be deported

The toddler is in Middlemore Hospital. Photo / Martin Sykes

A toddler who has had both legs amputated after contracting a deadly strain of meningitis may have to leave New Zealand because her mother is an overstayer.

The girl, believed to be about 18 months old, is being treated at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital for meningococcal septicaemia - a strain of meningitis where the blood is poisoned and kills flesh.

Although the toddler was born in New Zealand, her mother is an overstayer.

Surgeons have so far removed both the girl's legs and several of her fingers in a bid to save her life.

A source said she'd had a "whole lot" of operations, but was on the road to recovery: "She's doing very well. They are in the process of getting her ready to go home."

The Herald on Sunday has learned social workers have been working with the child's family to resolve "immigration issues".

It is understood that the child's mother, at least, is an overstayer. The status of the girl's father is not known.

"I think the child can stay, but that will be difficult without her mother."

The family declined to speak about their situation. And the Counties Manukau District Health Board refused to answer questions about the girl's care, the hospital's role in resolving her parents' immigration problems, and who was funding her treatment.

"I have consulted with hospital management and given that the family has requested privacy, it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time," spokeswoman Lauren Young said.

Immigration New Zealand refused to comment.

A spokesman for Associate Minister of Immigration Kate Wilkinson, who deals with individual cases, said she was unlikely to be aware of the situation.

He said Wilkinson only became involved in immigration cases once removal orders had been served.

Up until January 2006, babies born in New Zealand had automatic citizenship. But now, babies born here take on the "most favourable immigration status" of their parents - if both parents are overstayers so is the child, if one parent is an overstayer and the other is a citizen, the child takes on the latter status.

If a child is deemed a "non-resident" they are not entitled to free medical care, meaning the parents are expected to foot the bill.

According to figures given to TV3 by 20 district health boards in May, in the past five years more than $37 million worth of bad debt has been written off because visiting foreigners hadn't paid for their hospital treatment.

In addition to that, more than $10 million was currently overdue.