by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 09/98) - Life has been an uphill battle for a Cambridge Bay infant who's spent the last few months at an American. hospital recovering from a lung transplant.

Last week, mother, Fiona Lyall said her baby, Amelia, is doing well, though still at the St. Louis Children's Hospital in Missouri with her father, Mike Knapman.

"We're just trying to teach her to suck out of the bottle because she had the respirator on her for four or five months," said Lyall from a family member's home in Cambridge Bay.

Lyall came back to her home to be with her sister, who's new-born baby died unexpectedly. The cause of the her niece's death has not been determined.

Amelia was admitted to the St. Louis Children's Hospital in late October needing a new pair of lungs to replace her own, which were underdeveloped.

She was born Aug. 20 in Yellowknife. It was an uneventful delivery and, initially, Amelia was considered healthy. Though somewhat light at six pounds 10 ounces.

Shortly after delivery she was diagnosed with pulmonary dysmaturity -- improperly formed lungs. Without a lung transplant, she would die.

On Dec. 5, at just three months, Amelia received a delicate lung transplant. A donor from the United States was found.

"She woke up 15 minutes after the surgery was done and she looked like a new baby. Like she was just born," said Lyall.

"It was a relief. There's a gift you could never return. There's not enough words to say thank you to the donor. I'm just speechless."

Amelia was taken out of the hospital at the end of January, but last month was admitted again for another surgery on one of her stomach muscles.

"She can eat everything but everything just comes right back up," said Lyall. "That's all we're waiting for right now."

There was never a time when the family wanted to give up on their new addition to the family.

Looking back over the last six months, Lyall said phoning her family every day kept her strong.

"Talking to them and asking them what should I do," said Lyall, weeping over the phone. "They said there was nothing I can do. The only thing that could help was pray. So we did that. We prayed and prayed. She got her donor when she really needed them. If she didn't get her donor she only had a couple more days to live."

Lyall will be meeting her husband and Amelia in Edmonton when she is ready to go home, which could be at least two more weeks.

Financial difficulties

Now that Amelia is doing better, Lyall and Knapman have something else to worry about: money.

Between the travelling, food costs and phone bills, the family is having a tough time making ends meet.

The territorial government has footed the family's medical bills, which Health Minister Kelvin Ng said amount to several million dollars. But Lyall has had to keep her family fed and pay the bills at home during this trying time.

After returning from St. Louis two weeks ago, Lyall found herself arguing with NorthwesTel over a $700 phone bill.

She told them she could only afford to make monthly payments of $100, but that wasn't enough.

"I told them my daughter was in the States. She's in the hospital and I said I need access to a phone. If anything happens I don't have any way to get a hold of them," she said. "The next couple of days they cut my phone. I told them they would get their money."

Lyall has been thinking about starting a fund to raise money, but she doesn't how to go about doing it.

"That would really help if I had some donations," she said. "Two thousand dollars would do."

Lyall is also looking for work to help get them back on their feet, but work is scarce. Her husband is still in St. Louis with Amelia, and they also have a son Bradley, 2, and Charlotte, 7, to care for.