Our Little Star - Super Nova's Brave Battle

Her doting folks are smitten

- Julie Jacobson

Frantic mum Acacia Hunia didn’t get to see her newborn baby for almost 14 hours after delivering her by emergency Caesarean. And it was a heart wrenching 18 days before she finally got to hold her precious wee daughter.

Born at 30 weeks with a rare genetic syndrome that prevented her jawbones from developing, little Nova Joy also had a cleft lip and palate, plus missing external ear canals. She wasn’t expected to survive.

As doctors battled to keep the wee girl with half a face breathing, hand-pumping oxygen into her tiny lungs for close to four hours, her anxious parents were told to expect the worst.

“The paediatrician said she was trying to die, but they were trying everything they could,” tells Joseph. “They said to be aware she’s a little different. It was pretty crazy.”

“I was in shock for a long time,” admits Acacia, whose first sight of her daughter was a photograph of her in an incubator in intensive care. “I completely shut my emotions down.”

The couple knew Acacia’s pregnancy might not be without complications – haemophilia runs in her family and she was under the care of a specialist team at Wellington Hospital. The blood disorder affects males, so they were elated when the 20-week scan revealed the baby was a girl.