Lee and Francesca Moore-Williams, a couple from England were over the moon to greet their second born, Bella, to the world. But problems began to show when baby Bella started to lose clumps of her hair when she was just 14 months old.
Regardless of assurances from doctors that Bella simply had asthma, the girl took a turn for the worse while on a family holiday in Spain. Lee and Francesca returned home to England looking for solutions. But the reality was miserably worse than they could have perhaps imagined.
Upon landing in their home country, Bella’s parents took her to Colchester Hospital in Essex. There, a scan exposed that she had no movement in her legs. Worse, her situation was worsening. Before long, Bella was slipping in and out of consciousness as she fought with a lack of energy.
Little Bella was quickly moved to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where she was admitted to intensive care and placed on a ventilator. An MRI scan discovered severe deformities across both hemispheres of her brain. As a result, her parents were learned that Bella most likely had a fatal mitochondrial disease. As per reports, they were communicated three times that their daughter wouldn’t make it and there was very little for them to do but sit by her side and pray every day.
The disease Bella actually had was Biotinidase deficiency, a genetic disorder that affects just one in every 60,000 births. Luckily, the hospital had dealt with a comparable case six years prior, so they knew how best to try and treat it.
After a round of biotin jabs which Bella took for a few days, doctors tried to take her off the ventilator to see if she could respire by herself. But she couldn’t, so she was swiftly put back on the machine.
In spite of the best efforts of the medical specialists, Bella’s health was on the decay and her family were soon asked to say their goodbyes at her bedside.
Bella’s mother said that she now feels a lot of guilt for bringing family members there to say goodbye but she didn’t know that at the time. Francesca further said that she will never, ever forget that moment where she had to say goodbye to her daughter. Alongside with their son Bobby, the pair took a last picture with their daughter before turning off her ventilator.
It was then that a miracle seemed to take place. Bella squeezed her grip as the ventilator was switched off and quickly enough her oxygen levels were showing 100%.
After finally waking up, the massively brave Bella was moved to a children’s ward. She finished three weeks there before she was able to return home to her family.
Thank God that Bella showed such a remarkable spirit and was able to pull through regardless of all the odds.
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