When Mya was 7 years old, she had life-changing plastic surgery with a team of five surgeons led by Dr Wheeler. From birth she has been living with a rare condition called arteriovenous malformation (AVM), an entanglement of blood vessels in her left cheek. Her condition was becoming so bad that the growth was pushing on her teeth and forcing them to fall out.

Two years on from her transformational surgery, Mya’s back at school and getting on doing the things she loves, like jiu-jitsu and dirt biking!

In 2020 Avery was involved in a nasty car accident that left her suffering with severe head, leg and spinal injuries, as well as internal bleeding. The situation was critical, and Avery was rushed to Starship’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for urgent treatment.


Avery spent five days battling for her life in PICU, and a total of three weeks on the ward as she began the difficult process of relearning basic motor skills, such as rolling over.

How is Avery now? With help from the fantastic staff at Starship, Avery has made wonderful progress. She has since regained significant mobility, mastering the use of her crutches, and has been making incredible progress in learning how to stand unassisted again!

Lennox is a very special little boy. A real fighter. At 20 weeks of pregnancy a heart-defect was spotted, at birth he was put into intensive care, and at 3 weeks he was moved to the Starship National Children’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for open heart surgery.

At 10 weeks he underwent further surgery, spending 9 months in ICU. He’s still battling today but doing well, thanks to his incredible spirit and the world-class care he’s receiving.

Ezekiel Pilimai seemed to be a happy and healthy one-year-old boy when one day everything changed. He couldn’t breathe, he turned blue and limp. He was rushed to Christchurch Hospital where the team discovered that Ezekiel’s lungs had collapsed. He was quickly transferred to Starship’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to receive specialised care.

“Starship means a lot to our family,” says mum Zoe. “Life is full of surprises and when life turns so suddenly like it did for us it made us realise how incredibly lucky we are to live in a country that has a hospital that focuses on children’s health. Without the specialised care we received we may not have our little boy with us now. So we are, and always will be, so grateful to Starship and what they do for all the families around the country that have found themselves in similar situations.”

Ezekiel is now 3.5 years old and continues to receive follow up care for his unique medical condition in Christchurch.

Baby Poppy's life hung in the balance.
At just three months old, she was having a major cardiac arrest. Poppy's mum, Estelle, remembers exactly what the doctors at her local hospital told her: Poppy's heart is not beating very well, it is not pumping the blood through her body. You have to be transported to Starship.

At Starship, Poppy was diagnosed with a chronic heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy. That's when she was rushed into Starship's Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

Poppy stayed in PICU for a total of eight months, including her first Christmas, fighting to get well. Thankfully Poppy is now well enough that she was sent home with her loving family to Hamilton.

At just five days old, Xavier underwent his first of three open-heart surgeries at Starship. Then, after nine weeks of recovery, he headed home to Christchurch. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of little Xavier’s rocky start.

After arriving home, Xavier contracted bronchiolitis and was rushed to Christchurch Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit after he stopped breathing. It was now life or death.

Starship’s National Air Ambulance was called in. When Xavier touched down at Starship, he was immediately seen by world-class pediatric specialists, teamed with leading facilities – both only available at Starship and critical to Xavier’s survival. We’re delighted to share that Xavier has since recovered and settled back in at home with his family, where he’s a lively buddy to his big brothers!