It is always a heartrending news for parents when their child is diagnosed with any life-threatening ailment.
The parents of baby Bella received such saddening news that their toddler suffers from a terminal disease. The parents, Francesca and Lee Moore-William were extremely disheartened when they were told by doctors that their baby Bella had a fatal illness known as the mitochondrial disease.
Mitochondrial diseases are generally a group of disorders caused by mutations in the mitochondrial DNA or the genes of the nuclear DNA resulting in dysfunctional mitochondria, which are found in all cells in most of the cells in our bodies, and converts food energy into a form that powers the body.
The symptoms usually seen involve poor growth, muscle weakness, heart and liver diseases, kidney problems, respiratory disorders and so on. Basically, almost all the body system will be subjected to one disease or the other. Research and treatment for this disease are limited at the moment, especially with the current level of gene technology. Gene therapy is an established treatment for the condition when identified preconception.
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For the Williams, Bella’s condition offered no hope of survival. The first case of the mutation of the mitochondrial DNA was identified in 1988, indicating that no meaningful progress had been made in the research to find a cure.
The doctors all but decided that the fate of the baby was hopeless, they told the parents there was absolutely no chance for Bella to survive.point 117 | Nevertheless, the Williams did everything and tried everything they could just to give baby Bella a chance at life, it was at the peak of this the doctors told the parents that the time had come to take Bella of the life support machine.point 311 |
Francesca and Lee agreed and gave their little girl one last goodbye kiss before she was taken off the machine.point 92 | As the machine was disabled, the family experienced a divine Christmas miracle.point 160 | Baby Bella mysteriously came back to life from the brink of death that day, early enough to celebrate the Christmas with her family.point 270 |
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Within a few seconds of kissing their baby goodbye and then switching off her life support device, baby Bella began to make a rapid recovery from her condition. Even the doctors termed the event as “Impossible”, and could only have been nothing short of a miracle.
The mother, Francesca aged 41 at the time and her husband, Lee who was 44 years old then were both close to delirium from the shocking and seemingly impossible thing they witnessed happening to their daughter. The parents and doctors were waiting for the girl to draw her last breath after they took off the life support, a last family photograph was even taken as the parents sobbed over the departing body of their toddler.
Mrs. Francesca Moore-Williams said: “We both stood there waiting for her to draw her last breath.”
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About thirty minutes after the goodbye kiss, Bella, who had been left on the bed for dead, began to kick and scream out loud. All the machines monitoring her vitals began beeping fast, stunning the doctors. It was decided there that her condition had significantly and amazingly improved.
Even though the doctors failed to explain how wonder happened for baby Bella, they were able to certify that her revival from the condition afflicting her can now be successfully managed with drugs.
Her recovery was so quick that she was discharged from the hospital in time to celebrate Christmas with her family at their home in Essex.
The mother, Francesca was astonished and joyful that her baby girl recovered from her ailment after all hope had been lost.
She said, “It is absolutely an amazing thing. We are feeling like we have won the lottery. It is great to see how well she is doing considering what happened before, she has made our family whole again. Each time I hear her say ‘mama’ now, it melts my heart”.
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They first noticed Bella had some kind of disease when she was 14 months old. She exhibited symptoms like hair loss and slumping from her chair, the local hospital ran tests on her to determine her condition but they all came out clean.
A few months after the first symptoms were seen, Bella’s condition aggravated drastically. On a vacation trip of the family of four to Gran Canaria, they discovered that her energy levels had fallen dangerously.
Immediately they returned from the holiday trip, the parents took her to the Colchester Hospital where she was admitted.
Further tests carried out at the hospital as her condition worsened revealed she had a fatal type of the mitochondrial disease.
“We were informed about three times that it does not look like she would survive her condition, so we sat at her bedside every day praying”, Francesca added.
The miraculous recovery of Bella brought the family together at Christmas as one.
The mother also said, “It is just great to see her doing well. We are all so excited to be celebrating Christmas together as one and sit to watch everyone open their gifts”.
This is one of those occurrences science will find difficult to explain, all we can say is that the dying little Bella and her family got their miracle.