One year old boy recovers from traumatic brain injury against all odds
In March, this year tragedy struck the Hekau family when their one-year old Robin Hekau was involved in a car accident at their residence in Paliati.
The toddler suffered a traumatic brain injury after he was hit by a car on their driveway and was medevacked to New Zealand for treatment accompanied by his mother Shanta Hekau.
Rob who is the youngest of seven children was admitted at the Intensive Care Unit of the Starship Hospital in Auckland during the lockdown.
“He suffered, as it was described to me by medical professionals he had suffered a traumatic brain injury which means that there were fractures to his skull, the front and the back of his skull and his brain shook inside which resulted in bruises to his brain and lesions so we were medevacked to New Zealand and we received help from there and we were in Starship hospital and different facilities for healthcare in terms of his recovery.” said Shanta Hekau
For the months during his recovery, no family members were allowed to visit due to the lockdown in New Zealand, only his mother stayed by his side at the ICU. She said for nights she cried by his bedside as she was told by the medical professionals that it was unlikely that her one-year-old son would survive.
Against all the odds, the one-year-old recovered. He was discharged from hospital in July and returned to Niue with his mother.
When BCN News visited the family for the interview earlier this week, the one-year-old was visibly healthy and happy, playing with his mother.
“ We think he is back, they call it back to baseline, we think he’s back to normal but with his injuries because he’s young we will never fully know and with each milestone we come across it than we will know if some things don’t work out the way its suppose to than we’ll know those things were affected but we’re just very grateful that he’s still here with us today after everything.”
Shanta Hekau believes her son survived thanks to faith, prayers and fasting by family and friends.
“What happened to us was something that no parents should experience, and this Rob is number 7 and it still happened to us. We are just happy that he’s here with us and we would like to thank everyone on the island, everybody that remembered us in our prayers.
It was especially hard for us because when we went to New Zealand it was during lockdown and nobody was allowed to come and see us. There were many nights I was in ICU and I cried by myself and the doctors had told me that I should not expect to have my son back and for a moment I knew there were signs but I also knew that we are people of faith and I knew that a lot of people were praying for us and I chose to hold on to that so thankyou to the whole island , to everybody for praying and fasting for us. I also thank the advances in medicine for helping us and I just want to say fakaaue lahi for the prayers, I know it helped me and my family.”
