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By Najib Siddik
Holding a milk bottle snugly in her tiny hands as she sleeps, little Auni looks like any normal baby.
She's not. A closer look will reveal that she has jaundice. Which is normal among newborns, as it usually clears without treatment.
But little Auni is eight months old. And she's very sick.
"My baby needs a new liver. Otherwise, she won't survive. The doctors who treated her gave her about a period of less than a year to live," said Madam Suriani Senin, trying hard to hold back tears.
Auni, whose full name is Auni Syahira Mohamed Rossly, needs a living and willing donor aged 21 to 55 years old, from the O-positive blood group, said Madam Suriani, 31.
She and her husband, 35, can't donate because they both have B-positive blood. Auni is O-positive.
Auni was diagnosed with biliary atresia when she was three months old. Infants with this condition are born without bile ducts. The condition is rare - it affects one in 14,000 newborns.
When The New Paper visited Auni at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) on Wednesday, she was fast asleep.
Said Madam Suriani, a childcare teacher:"During the first month, medical checks at Tampines Polyclinic did not reveal anything, so I thought things were normal."
But on April 4, when Auni went for her third-month vaccination, the doctor noticed her prolonged jaundice. Her stomach was also bloated.
"She was sent to KKH on the same day for further checks, and was admitted on that day itself," said Madam Suriani.
The next day, Auni underwent checks and ultrasound scans which detected an obstruction on her bile duct.
Without transplant, this baby will die
Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: TNP, Suriani Senin) |
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