Samoa's 'baby miracle' needs help to live

Supplied

HELP NEEDED: Supporters have launched a campaign to raise money to get tiny Miracle Tina Julie Nanai to New Zealand for a full medical assessment.

Relevant offers

She was not expected to survive for more than a few hours. Doctors had even decided she should not be fed. But two months later, after her family refused to let her slip away, Samoa's "Baby Miracle" is clinging to life, despite terrible facial deformities.

Supporters have now launched a campaign to raise money to get tiny Miracle Tina Julie Nanai to New Zealand for a full medical assessment.

Miracle's birth two months ago in a village on the main Samoan island of Upolu was not what her parents had expected.

When doctors handed over their baby, they saw her tiny face was not as it should have been.

Her misshapen eyes were pushed to the side of her face, and her nose and mouth were malformed, preventing her from suckling.

Doctors simply told Miracle's parents that she should not be fed and would die within hours, Tanupo Aukuso, editor of the Samoan Post newspaper, said.

But the family refused to listen, and crept into the hospital to gently drip milk into the baby's mouth, gradually making her stronger.

After a week, Miracle left hospital but doctors say she needs surgery.

"According to doctors she can't survive this ... they also say she has a smaller brain than a normal baby," Aukuso said.

He said proper scans of the child had still not been carried out, and money was needed to get her to New Zealand for a full assessment.

Although Miracle's parents were originally keen to keep their child out of the spotlight, they reluctantly agreed to be filmed for New Zealand television to raise their plight.

Miracle can be see stretching and yawning and being fed milk in a syringe in the video, and being held by her grandmother Veronika.

Aukuso said it was uncertain how much money was needed to get the child to New Zealand and treated, but it would far exceed the family's finances.

"I spoke to one doctor who said it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars," he said.

After viewing the images of Miracle, New Zealand plastic surgeon Dr Tristan de Chalain told a television station the child must be properly examined.

"She has a significant deformity of the fronto-nasal area, the area above the nose. This could be a fronto-nasal dysplasia or it could be a meningocele, where the brain tissue is actually growing through the bone into the area between the eyes," he said.

A website where people can get further information about Miracle and donate money can be found at www.babymiracle.co.nz.

- AAP