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children’s rehabLia (10) was dying – today she can walk again
Lia was six years old when the flu weakened her and attacked her organs. She had to be resuscitated four times and later learned to stand and walk again.
- von
- Federico Zanini
- Anja Zingg
Lia fought her way back to life in children’s rehab. You can see how she achieved this in the video.
20min
That’s what it’s about
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When six-year-old Lia got a fever, her mother wasn’t worried at first.
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But the flu symptoms kept getting stronger and the virus attacked her organs.
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Lia was taken to the intensive care unit, where she had to be resuscitated four times.
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You can see how Lia and her mother experienced this fate in the video above.
Actually, it was a normal flu, says Lia’s mother. But when the fever didn’t go down and Lia got worse and worse, she was admitted to the Zurich Children’s Hospital. The virus attacked Lia’s organs, most notably the kidneys. Lia had to be resuscitated four times. She spent her seventh birthday in a coma in intensive care. “I sat next to her in bed. Suddenly I heard her voice saying she was thirsty,” Lia’s mother said.
After four weeks in the intensive care unit, Lia went on to children’s rehabilitation in Switzerland. Lia was in a wheelchair and couldn’t move her legs or arms. She suffered from a severe muscle breakdown disorder. A prognosis was difficult, the doctors said you had to check every day, Lia’s mother remembers.
A year in children’s rehab
For a year she was in rehab with her daughter, sleeping next to her in a 90 cm folding bed. “She cried and screamed whole nights to process things that had happened.”
“Therapy, therapy, therapy,” is how Lia sums up her time in rehab. She was busy for several hours every day with muscle building and mobilization. She particularly enjoyed spending time in the in-house swimming pool. «Lia is a water rat. In the water she felt free and able to do things that were not possible on land.”
Lia learns to walk again
After a year, Lia was able to walk again and said to her mother: «I can walk now, can we go home? I don’t want to spend another year here.” But when the day came, she was sad, says Lia: “I was happy, but I also cried because this was my home for a year.”
You can see how Lia fared in children’s rehab and how she’s doing today in the video above.
This article was created in cooperation with the Children’s Hospital Zurich, which, as a private foundation, is dependent on donations. More information at: www.dasneuekispi.ch