Cliff Notes
- Sienna-Rose, a 19-month-old toddler, suffered a brain haemorrhage while on holiday in Cancun, Mexico, prompting life-saving surgery to remove a blood clot.
- The incident left Sienna-Rose and her family stranded thousands of miles from their home, awaiting news on potential lasting brain damage.
- A crowdfunding campaign initiated by her family has raised over £100,000 to assist with medical expenses and transportation costs for her return to the UK.
- Lia’s Wings, a charity organisation, has been contacted to facilitate an air ambulance transfer for Sienna-Rose to ensure she receives ongoing medical care closer to home.
- The family expressed overwhelming gratitude for the support received from the public, including donations from individuals such as Premier League defender Antonee Robinson.
Sienna-Rose fundraiser hits £100k as family working to get her home
The family of Sienna-Rose, who collapsed while playing with her older brothers in Cancun last week, have continued their plea to bring their daughter home. The 19-month-old toddler suffered a brain haemorrhage in Mexico last week and had live-saving surgery to remove a blood clot.
The incident left Sienna and her family, including two brothers, stranded thousands of miles from their home in Croxteth, anxiously waiting to find out if the toddler has any lasting brain damage.
A fundraiser was set up by Natasha’s sister-in-law Amy McFadden to help the family with medical and transportation costs. In a matter of days, over £100,000 has been raised by kind people to help the family.
In an update on the GoFundMe page, Sienna-Rose’s family posted: “Just to keep you all updated on what’s going on, we are currently awaiting medical reports from the hospital in Cancun so we can start to make arrangements for the air ambulance. Once we have this from them I can give you all a proper update that she is finally coming home.
“Thank you all so much everyone. We honestly just can’t believe how kind and generous everyone has been towards our family.
“From the bottom of our hearts thank you all so much for all your donations and kind messages, we see them. Sorry if I’ve not managed to reply to you all its just been so overwhelming.
“So we are currently working close with a charity who can arrange an air ambulance for Sienna and supporting us as a family. Unfortunately as they are a charity we still need donations to pay for this so please keep sharing our story and help us bring Sienna home. Thanks again.”
Lia’s Wings, a charity that provides hospital air transfer for children has reached out to Sienna-Rose’s family to help bring her back to the UK. The charity delivers life-saving services both in the UK and internationally.
In a post on their Facebook page, Lia’s Wings Charity said: “Thank you to everyone who has reached out with concern for Sienna-Rose, the 19-month-old who suffered a brain haemorrhage while on holiday in Mexico.
“We are working closely with her family to arrange an air ambulance transfer for Sienna-Rose so she can receive ongoing medical care closer to home. During this challenging time, we are committed to doing everything we can to support her family,”
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 collapsed at their apartment. Natasha said the family were packing and planning the next part of their journey to 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. The family were refused treatment so instead went to another hospital which was 30 minutes away only to find the CT machine was broken.
Natasha said by the time they were admitted into a third hospital Sienna-Rose had “vomited about 50 times”. A CT scan showed her brain had suffered a haemorrhage and had doubled in size due to the amount 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 a blood clot removed.
Natasha said the surgeon had told the family the clot had been there for a number of months and “she was a ticking timebomb”. The toddler currently has a shunt into her head, which will be removed depending on how she responds. However, Natasha said the family does not know what will happen next as they wait to find out if permanent damage has been done. They 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.
A fundraiser was set up by Natasha’s sister-in-law Amy McFadden to help the family with medical and transportation costs. 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.”
A Premier League defender has shown his support to Sienna-Rose and her family by making a donation to help with her recovery. Antonee Robinson, who plays for Fulham, donated £500 on Saturday night.
You can donate to the fundraiser to support Sienna-Rose here.
