Award-winning singer-songwriter Anna van Riel, of Luggate, has hit some high notes in her career, but bringing her baby Matilda home to the Upper Clutha for the first time after months spent battling a rare health condition will top them all.
Matilda was born three months ago with a giant omphalocele, where the abdomen fails to close around the base of the umbilical cord during early development. The condition occurs in one out of every 10,000 live births, but the incidence is even lower for a ruptured omphalocele, as Matilda had.
For weeks, the couple lived at Ronald McDonald house while their "tough wee girl" Matilda spent her days in the neonatal intensive care unit at Wellington Hospital after being born with her stomach, intestines and liver in a sac outside her body.
She has undergone three major operations - including one at just 2 days old - and is only the second or third baby in New Zealand to have a pigskin graft, to help new skin grow on her belly over the protruding organs.
Ms van Riel said it was possible Matilda's condition was a result of agricultural chemical spraying in the area where they lived in Australia, where a "cluster" of babies were born with abdominal wall defects. The series of defects has been well publicised in the media and investigated by health authorities.
Matilda has now been transferred to Invercargill, where she and her parents can be closer to extended family while receiving ongoing hospital care. Daily hospital visits are still required for dressing changes, but Matilda's organs are now enclosed in her stomach and the pigskin graft has been mostly replaced by her own new skin growth.
Her condition overall has improved in "leaps and bounds" in recent weeks and the family hopes to move home to Mr Urquhart's parents' place in Hawea in a month or two.
Ms van Riel said her Wanaka-based family members were constantly being stopped in the street by people inquiring about Matilda's progress, while friends and fans of Ms van Riel's music had sent cards and gifts from around the world.
"There's been so much support. I think that's been a big part of her healing ... I just feel so incredibly humbled by it.
"Every day is still a real challenge but our whole objective has been to acknowledge the blessings and have gratitude as opposed to concentrating on the things we can't change."
Ms van Riel has performed on some big stages in her time, including at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane last year, where she sang the New Zealand national anthem in front of 50,000 fans at the rugby league Four Nations final.
But it was a very special audience she delivered some cheer to when she played her ukulele to Matilda and other seriously-ill babies in the neonatal intensive-care unit.
"The lucky thing for us is that Matilda will be a normal little girl ... but for some families, their baby will be battling for the rest of their life with health issues."
