Tiny 19-month-old Sienna-Rose suddenly collapsed on holiday and had to have life-saving surgery just hours later – her parents are now facing an agonising wait in hospital
A mum has told how her family’s dream holiday turned into a “nightmare” after their tiny toddler suffered a brain haemorrhage in Mexico.
Natasha Sargeant’s daughter, Sienna-Rose, suddenly collapsed while playing with her older brothers in Cancun earlier this week, and hours later had to go life-saving surgery to remove a blood clot. Now, the family from Croxteth, Liverpool, who flew over with their three children, have been left anxiously waiting to find out if their “happy” 19-month-old has suffered any lasting brain damage. They are having to urgently raise money for a flight home after already spending thousands on her hospital treatment.
Speaking from the hospital in Cancun on Saturday, 31-year-old Natasha told the LiverpoolEcho: “I don’t have any words to describe what we have been through – it’s been absolutely horrific.” Natasha and her partner Liam Millen, 39, had been sight-seeing around Mexico with children Harry, 13, Liam, 11, and Sienna-Rose when the toddler fell unconscious at their flat. Natasha said the family were packing and planning the next part of their journey to the coastal town of Tulum when Sienna-Rose “dropped to the floor like she was having a seizure”.
She added: “Next minute she was constantly vomiting. We didn’t know if she had banged her head.” The family rushed to the nearest hospital, but were told it would cost £4,000 up front for a CT scan and an overnight stay. They instead went to another hospital, which was 30 minutes away, only to find the CT machine was broken. By the time they were admitted into a third hospital, desperately ill Sienna-Rose had “vomited about 50 times”. A CT scan showed her brain had suffered a haemorrhage and had doubled in size from the build-up of fluid.
The mum said: “Most of the doctors and nurses couldn’t speak English and we don’t speak Spanish so it was difficult to communicate. I was beside myself – I was begging the surgeon to save her life. He said he did this surgery all the time. His assistant said he was the best neurosurgeon in the country and if she didn’t have the surgery she would die.”
Sienna-Rose was in surgery for around three-and-a-half hours to have the blood clot removed. Natasha said the surgeon told the family the clot had been there for several months, and likened the situation to a “ticking timebomb”. The mum said her daughter’s past week had been “absolutely horrendous”, adding: “She is the most happy, lovely little baby. I would never wish what we are going through on anyone.”
The hospital is hot without any air conditioning, and also does not have any paracetamol, she said, meaning Natasha and Liam have been taking it in turns to buy it from local chemists. The mum said: “I’ve been running around to buy some to try and help bring down her fever. If not it will kill her.”
Because the ward also has a one-visitor-at-a-time rule in place, the family has rented a flat close to the hospital so all of them can stay together as much as possible while one of the parents spends time by the toddler’s bedside. Sienna-Rose, who spends long periods under sedation, currently has a shunt inserted in her head, which will be removed depending on how she responds to her treatment.
To add to their problems, the family still do not know how long they will be in Mexico away from their loved ones, or if Sienna-Rose will be able to fly back, as they are unsure if she has any more blood clots.
Natasha said the British Embassy had been in touch and said a medical flight would be best, but that the family would have to pay for it themselves. It will cost around £45,000 for the specialist flight, she said, which is money the family does not have. The Mirror have contacted the Foreign Office for comment.
A GoFundMe page has now been set up by Natasha’s sister-in-law Amy McFadden to help the family with medical and transportation costs. It has so far raised £5,995 of a £50,000 target. Natasha told the ECHO: “We have been getting messages of support but it’s not like people can just jump on a flight because we’re 10 hours away. We really appreciate all the offers of help and support.”
She added: “I can’t describe the feeling over the past three days. It’s been the worst days of our lives. The hardest thing is not knowing. What do we do? We are putting all our trust in the doctors to save Sienna. It feels so lonely. We were supposed to be making memories with the family – it’s absolutely heartbreaking.”
