INDIANAPOLIS, July 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Six-year-old Kaliyasha Barrett has defied the odds and doctors' predictions that she would die soon after being born with the upper-most section of her brain, the cerebral cortex, missing.
Kaliyasha's mother April says her daughter, who was diagnosed before birth with the normally fatal abnormality called hydranencephaly, is a fighter and that she believes it's a miracle that her little girl has lived for so long.
April was told a week before her delivery that her baby wouldn't survive after birth.
“My doctor told me a week before I delivered that she would be born without a brain, and he told me to go take a picture of my belly, that that would be the last time she would be alive,” April told FoxNews.
“I was devastated every time she kicked. It made me cry because I was like, this is the last time you'll be alive?” she recalled.
But somehow, with only a brain stem, Kaliysha has reached her sixth birthday.
“She’s a survivor, and she survived for me for a real long time,” April said. “It is a miracle.”
Children with hydranencephaly typically have a functioning brainstem, including the complex neural structures of the midbrain, but the cerebral hemispheres are absent and replaced by sacs filled with cerebrospinal fluid.
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“The brain stem is a part of the nervous system that controls autonomic functioning like the trigger to breathe and maintain blood pressure and things like that,” said Dr. Nicholas Bambakidis, director of cerebrovascular and skull base surgery at University Hospital's Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
“It's possible to have those autonomic functions still active without having the cerebral cortex, the part that (Kaliysha) is missing, which controls the higher functioning things like personality, memory and speech, working,” he explained to FoxNews.
Last month, however, Kaliyasha came down with the flu, which April said attacked her daughter's immune system, damaging her lungs and her brainstem to the extent that doctors said there was nothing they could do.
“The (brainstem) she was using to function got damaged,” April said, according to a report from local news service WLFI.
Kaliyasha is receiving hospice care at home until her anticipated death. However, her mother is asking for financial help because her daughter has been denied life insurance, which would normally help cover funeral expenses, because of Kaliyasha's pre-existing condition.
“It cost $2,000 just to dig a hole,” April told WLFI News, explaining that she wants to bury her daughter near her grandmother.
“At least she won’t be by herself 'cause I don’t know anybody else who’s gone and who loved her that much,” April said about the love shown Kaliyasha by her grandmother.
April said that her daughter defied the odds and lived for so long because of the love she was given.
“I think that Kaliysha was here and stayed here for six years because of love… you see how beautiful she is… she’s loved,” April said.
The Barrett family has set up a fund called ‘Pace of Miracles’ to raise money for Kaliysha’s eventual funeral and burial. Donations can be made at any Chase Bank location.
A video about Kaliysha is available from FoxNews here.
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