When Lyla Riley was born she had high levels of jaundice and doctors were worried about her liver, forcing her to spend time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or signup to continue reading The tough little girl pulled through and started hitting all the milestones your average child should hit. This all changed on New Year's Day of 2021. Emily and Nicholas Riley had to take their little girl to the emergency department in Dubbo when she started having seizures.
"They basically said, 'look it's probably a virus' and sent us home with some neurofen and hydralyte ice blocks," Ms Riley said. The decline from there was quite fast. Lyla went from being a little girl who could speak three to four-word sentences and was toilet trained, to going mute and back into nappies.
"She turned into like a little zombie kid, the seizures continued and on one occasion we ended up in the emergency department of John Hunter Hospital," she said. While at the , it was recommended that Lyla undergo an electroencephalogram (EEG) - a test that measures electrical activity in the brain. The EEG test seemed fine and doctors said they weren't concerned.
"We saw the paediatricians and expressed our concerns about her whole persona in general, and the fact she wasn't talking anymore, wasn't going to the toilet and her social interaction declined so much," she said. The parents kept getting told their daughter was fine and there was nothing to worry about. In July 2023 Lyla ended up in the resuscitation ba.