New family celebrate taking their baby home from Perth Children’s Hospital just in time for Christmas

Finally getting to take their baby home feels like a Christmas miracle for first-time parents Taea Pepere and Azire Dhue.

The first three weeks of Evarni Dhue’s life were harrowing, with no timeline on when she could leave Perth Children’s Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit after she was born with respiratory distress syndrome.

The newborn was immediately hooked up to a machine to help her breathe when she was born at King Edward Memorial Hospital.

However, Evarni’s condition declined and she had to be to be transferred to PCH and put on a ventilator.

“She was a bit premature, which meant she didn’t quite get enough time for her lungs to develop . . . she just wasn’t able to breathe on her own,” Ms Pepere said.

“It has been a bit of a rollercoaster, obviously, it was quite scary to begin with.

“And then the last few weeks have just been getting her better and getting her feeding well and on the track home.

“There was no real timeline of how long she was going to be in hospital for.

“We really had no idea.”

Evarni was given the all clear to go home this weekend, just in time to celebrate Christmas as a new family.

Ms Pepere said getting the call that Evarni would be home for Christmas brought on a “flood of emotions”.

“It feels surreal actually just because we’ve been here for so long,” she said.

“Honestly I’m just excited to be normal newborn parents, to take her home and spend Christmas with her.

“You just have this baby and all of a sudden it’s a type of love you’ve never known so this is very special.”

Mr Dhue said he would be celebrating bringing his daughter home for Christmas with “a couple of cold tins” and surrounded by family.

“It’s been pretty scary but you just deal with it and just keep on soldiering on like Evarni did and we are very happy,” he said.

“Absolutely rapt, it’s the best Christmas present.”

PCH NICU clinical nurse consultant Catherine Dunstan said it was always rewarding seeing babies get to go home for their first Christmas.

“It’s what makes working in neonates really rewarding is that we see babies come in and we see how sick they are . . . and then we see them getting ready to go home, especially at this time of year,” she said.

“We’ll try and send home the babies that are ready to go home and the other babies we will make sure we give them a special Christmas.

“Father Christmas will come and see them, they get Christmas stockings and the nurses have organised special decorations.”