Baby Aleeyah back in intensive care after health scare

DUBAI // A baby who had a life-saving liver transplant is recovering in intensive care after a health scare caused by an irregular heartbeat.

Doctors were making routine checks on one-year-old Aleeyah Carungay on Monday last week when they discovered her heart was beating too fast.

To help restore her normal heartbeat doctors gave her a cardioversion electric shock. She is now on medication.

Over the weekend Aleeyah’s condition improved and her heart is now beating normally. She is being closely monitored by doctors.

“They gave her medicine already and it was decreasing, but I’m praying for her to have a normal heartbeat,” said mother Grace Carungay, an Abu Dhabi receptionist.

Aleeyah had her liver transplant at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan, at the start of last month.

It was made possible after Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, donated more than Dh200,000 to pay for the procedure and related costs.

Aleeyah, along with her mother and an aunt who donated part of her liver, are expected to remain in Taiwan for a few more months as the baby recovers.

“After the operation all went well. She’s so happy and active, it seems like nothing happened,” Mrs Carungay said.

As Aleeyah recovers she is enjoying watching her favourite TV shows, is crawling and has become more expressive, her mother said.

“She’s eating better and can now sit alone, not like before. Aleeyah is very smart and active and it seems like she’s perfectly OK. She’s bubbly and so hyper it seems like nothing has happened. It’s so different to before.

“I feel like she’s trying to say, ‘I’m finally cured of what was keeping me down and now I’m ready to conquer the world and go on with my life’.”

Although Aleeyah can venture outside, the medication makes her susceptible to viruses.

Despite the difficulties, the family is ready for a fresh start once she is fully recovered.

Mrs Carungay again thanked Sheikh Mohammed for his generosity, and the UAE public for all their support.

Aleeyah had biliary atresia diagnosed after she became jaundiced at the age of two months.

The disease causes inflammation in the bile ducts, leading to damage that reduces the flow of bile and scars the liver. Bile carries toxins and waste out of the body and helps to digest fats and absorb vitamins.

The family endured a long, tortuous process leading up to the operation.

After receiving Sheikh Mohammed’s donation, Mrs Carungay was told by doctors in the Philippines that they could not schedule an operation for her in time.

In April she decided that the operation would take place in Taiwan after further help from Sheikh Mohammed, who paid for the transport and related costs.

Aleeyah had her operation at the beginning of June but even that was almost cancelled at the last minute when surgeons discovered a portal vein was blocked and had to find a replacement graft.

Once the 15-hour operation was complete, Aleeyah seemed to be on the road to recovery, until the latest complication last week.

nhanif@thenational.ae