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Thursday, April 17, 2025
www.warrnamboolweekly.com.au
Dig deep for children like Gia WHEN Hannah Carswell took her 10-week old baby to the emergency department at Warrnambool Hospital with a high temperature early January last year, little did she know it would be months before they returned home. Born in October 2023, Gia weighed a healthy 3.5 kilos. But it wasn’t long before parents Hannah and Dominic noticed something wasn’t quite right. “Gia was constantly crying, she was having trouble feeding and was quite unsettled,” Hannah said. “But at the time we thought it really wasn’t too much out of the normal for a newborn – until we saw a small blue lump start to develop when she was about six weeks old. “It was like a bruise just under her belly button. Initially I thought I must have caught a suit zip on her skin or something but it began to grow quite rapidly.”
By Gia’s eight week check-up that lump had grown to the size of a small pea. Not long after she developed mild congestion – a runny nose and her skin had turned pale. “Over Christmas we also noticed a couple of lumps on her fontanel and by New Year’s Day she began to go downhill; she was lethargic, no wet nappies, wasn’t feeding and she had a high fever by January 3.” Within hours of arriving at Warrnambool’s emergency department, bruising had also appeared on Gia’s ribs. Blood tests were taken and the results totally turned the Carswell family’s life upside down – and rocked them to the core. “Normally, a person’s white cell count is around 4-10, Gia’s was at 553. “She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We were absolutely shell-shocked.” Within an hour of diagnosis, Gia and Hannah were in a helicopter and on their way to The Royal Children’s Hospital for urgent treatment.
Gia spent 10 months in The Royal Children’s Hospital.
“It all happened so fast,” Hannah recalled. “We were still in shock from the diagnosis and then were told she needed to go to the Children’s straight away for treatment. “We were flown to RCH where Gia was admitted to the intensive care unit. They also found she had a staph infection that needed to be treated.” Gia was in ICU for four days and was an in-patient at the hospital for almost 10 months. “Our world really came crashing down that day,” Hannah said. “Dominic had to drive down to Melbourne and leave our other two daughters, Lainie (14) and Karalee (4) at home with my parents. “We were so lucky to have mum and dad to support us all. “It takes a village to raise a child. And when that child is gravely ill, that village expands tenfold.” While at the Royal Children’s, Gia underwent six gruelling rounds of high-intensity chemotherapy. “Our days were filled with treatments and appointments. It is absolutely heart wrenching to
see your baby in so much pain. “She was given high doses of strong pain relief medication after each dose of chemo, which was back to back. She would only really have one or two good days before she had another dose of chemo.
“We asked for a long-term prognosis but they (doctors) don’t like to give one, they just say there is no cure but we do have a treatment plan and that was all we needed to hear.
Continued on Page 3. Hannah Carswell is encouraging everyone to give what they can for the RCH Good Friday Appeal.