Baby Miracle heading home
Published: June 2, 2008
A deformed Samoan baby girl banned from entering New Zealand is heading home after extensive medical treatment in the United States.
Nine-month-old Miracletina (Miracle) Julie Nanai was born to her parents Sefulu and Mikaele Nanai in Falelatai, near Apia, with extreme deformities, notably around the face. Medical authorities had not expected her to survive.
The parents had been told the child would die within hours if not fed. Her family refused to let her die and secretly fed her.
Family backer To’oa Kristin Taylor has written to media organisations in Samoa saying Miracle was heading home.
She has been in Miami Children’s Hospital for extensive surgery.
“All of this work has been worth every second,” Taylor wrote.
“To learn to live your faith to the point of exhaustion, in the face of criticism, in the depth of financial need and when all is seemingly hopeless … is a gift few will realize unless they believe in ‘Miracles’.”
They say they will be back in Samoa this week.
The hospital donated many of the services while fund raising in Australia, New Zealand and Samoa raised $100,000 to send the child to Starship children’s hospital in Auckland but she was refused a visa to enter New Zealand.
The then head of Immigration, now suspended, Mary-Anne Thompson, declared last September that treatment was not advisable and “will not benefit Tina’s quality of life.”
Having now undergone surgery at Miami Children’s Hospital, Miracle could live a “long, long” time, chief of plastic surgery S. Anthony Wolfe said.
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