Hi Everyone, my name is David Fowler

My family and my group of friends have been supporting financially our friend Diego, Paula and their little daughter. But it is not even close to what they need, so we decided to create this page to get as much help as possible. This is their story:

Antonella was born on the 06 April 2022. At three days old, she was critically unwell, she was unresponsive, cold, floppy, had abnormal breathing, and was rushed through to the Queensland Children Hospital PICU, where she required intubation, ventilation and haemofiltration. Within 12 hours she was diagnosed with a scarce metabolic condition called propionic acidemia. Antonella spent the first 26 days of her life in hospital in critical condition.

After seven months, Antonella suffered a brain injury. She was hospitalized with increased floppiness and some unusual eye movements. An MRI scan showed changes in her brain, especially in the basal ganglia involved with movement. This means that her entire body is affected and that Antonella struggles to control her head and trunk.

Therefore, a new diagnostic was received: dystonic cerebral palsy. (with the dystonia, she is unable to control her movements, especially with her legs and arms).

Antonella is significantly behind other kids of her age both physically and cognitively. She requires support 24 hours a day. This support is provided mostly by her mum Paula and her Dad Diego, and the family has found it extremely difficult to find care options due to Antonella’s high support needs. She is physically carried or held over the day as she cannot support herself in sitting positions.

Paula and Diego are making every effort to obtain the best therapies to improve Antonella’s quality of life. Early intervention is key to giving her every chance possible. They spent their weeks attending multiple therapies, including Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, etc., plus medical appointments.

Additionally, Antonella has completed intensive therapy at the NAPA centre which was three hours of daily therapy for three weeks. They travelled long distances every single day but, her parents did everything they could to help her beautiful angel. After these intensive therapies, she made amazing improvements in her movements and her head control.

Annual Therapies and equipment for Antonella’s needs are more than $123K, some of them are funded by the NDIS, and some are not.

Her parents have always been researching everything possible to help Antonella in her recovery. They found that the steam cell infusions and red therapy could be potential treatments for the improvement of her head and trunk control, and fine motor skills and, help her to meet milestones.

This fundraiser aims to raise a substantial amount of money to cover the cost of the alternative treatments that can help Antonella fight her condition and her medical needs which the NDIS does not cover.