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Gold Coast family’s desperate plea after their 8 month old baby contracts meningococcal disease in Thailand

A YOUNG Gold Coast family is desperately trying to get their baby girl home from Thailand before her legs are amputated.

Eight-month-old Lilliana Sheridan has been fighting for her life for five days in a Thai hospital after contracting meningococcal caused by septic shock.

The family are calling it a miracle Lilliana has survived this far. Her arms and legs were swollen, black and blue and the hospital didn’t have her blood type for a transfusion.

Gold Coast mother Elisha Robinson has made a heartbreaking plea to save her baby girl’s life while in Phuket.

Yesterday, Lilliana was in a stable condition inside a Phuket hospital but Thai doctors were concerned about infection on her left leg and a little bit on her right.

As doctors talk of possible amputation, parents Elisha Robinson, 23, and Jai Sheridan, 25, just want to bring their baby back to Australia for a second opinion.

To make it worse, Ms Robinson cannot even hold her baby girl as she has the Influenza B virus.

“I still am not able to go anywhere near my baby,” she said. “I can’t even fly with her home.

“We are waiting for a specialist doctor to come which seems to be taking forever to see if the infection has gone down to the muscle or if we can skin graft it to save her leg.

“If it’s down to the muscle they must amputate (but) we must get her home. My insurance won’t cover it though, but we will get her home no matter what.”

Mr Sheridan said: “We have been in contact the whole time with Lilliana’s GP back home. He said the feet were a perfectly normal colour and there was no reason to amputate the leg.”

Mr Sheridan said the family’s travel insurance covered a flight from Phuket to Bangkok but wouldn’t pay for the medevac to Australia.

“We just want to get her home to the Brisbane Children’s Hospital but the medevac costs $120,000 which is why our friends and family have been trying to raise money.”

More than $13,000 has been raised through social media, giving the family some support during the horrible ordeal.

The holiday was originally planned for last year but after Ms Robinson fell pregnant it was postponed for this year.

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Lilliana is in a Thai hospital and her parents just want to bring her back to Australia for medical treatment.

Thailand had always been a special place for Ms Robinson’s family; they moved to the Asian country for a year after the sudden death of her sister.

That was before the former Trinity Lutheran College student moved back to Nerang where she worked at bars in Surfers Paradise

“On Thursday, Lilliana woke up with a bit of a fever but she was happy and smiling so we went for breakfast,” Mr Sheridan said.

When she didn’t shake the fever they took her to Patong Hospital where she was given paracetamol and hydrolytes.

“We left her with Elisha and we went out to get some lunch,” he said.

“When we came back Elisha was standing in the driveway and Lilli was just there limp with blue-purple rashes on all of her skin.”

After asking and being given money, the locals helped the family get an ambulance to Patong Hospital where Lilliana was given oxygen to stabilise her.

Lilliana is in a Thai hospital and her parents just want to bring her back to Australia for medical treatment.

“They transferred us to Bangkok Hospital in Phuket,” Mr Sheridan said. “I had to sign all this paperwork and they wanted me to pay a deposit before they looked at her. I paid it and then boom the doctor was there and she went straight to ICU.

 SOURCE: Gold Coast Bulletin

“Then they didn’t have O negative blood anywhere in Thailand at that stage and doctors had to give her O positive blood but she just took it.”

It was at this stage Ms Robinson made a heartbreaking plea for help.

“My baby is dying in Bangkok Hospital Phuket Town,” she wrote on a Facebook on Friday.

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“She needs O negative blood, please help me, someone please, I’m begging I can’t lose my baby.”

The post was shared more than 1200 times and within a day more than 1000 people donated blood to Thai Red Cross.

Elisha Robinson is distraught after her eight-month-old daughter become very sick while they were on a family holiday in Thailand.

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