We pay our respects to a family suffering the loss of their beloved “Littlest Superhero” this week.

Annie is a blogger on Mummalove. She lives in sunny Queensland and calls herself the ‘mumma love’ to three gorgeous boys – Sam, Charlie and Nicholas.

She also claims the title of wife of one, sister of six, aunty to 18, friend, daughter, business owner, and blogger. Some days a superwoman, other days not so much, but always giving it a red hot go.

Annie writes on her about me page – “Our youngest cherub, Nicholas, was born in March 2012, and was diagnosed with Down syndrome at about 18 weeks into the pregnancy via an amniocentesis. Coming to terms with Nicholas having Down syndrome has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions, but being able to get to know our beautiful boy in person since he made his entrance, rather than just dealing with a diagnosis, has made a world of difference. We thank our lucky stars every day that he came into our family and love watching the love between Nicholas and his two big brothers.”

Her eldest son, Sam, was diagnosed with Leukemia (ALL) on 9 September 2013. He has been in remission since the first month of chemotherapy and is still doing really well, but his treatment will continue for three years. That ends at the end of 2016.

Annie writes – “I’m here sharing our story because I know that this parenting gig isn’t easy, and I want you to know that it’s okay if you feel a bit overwhelmed too. Maybe we can all support each other by doing small things with great love, rather than trying to tackle anything too epic just yet.”

Annie’s blog Mummalove caught my eye one day. I think it was her positive can do attitude that stuck with me and I have been following her page for a while.

You can imagine my shock when I stumbled on a post saying little Nicholas hadn’t been well and was in ICU.

On the 10th of April Annie shared on her Facebook page that the doctors thought he had influenza. Nicholas was actually suffering a respiratory virus and streptococcus infection.

Nicholas was put on dialysis to help reduce fluid.

Nicholas’ skin also blistered and needed treating by nurses from the burns unit. It was discovered this was a result of a reaction to antibiotics.

Over all Nicholas was improving and things were looking good for a while. But sadly that all changed in the blink of an eye.

On Sunday Annie wrote on Facebook –

“Hubby called at 2am and very calmly told me that the doctors were concerned and I should join him at the hospital. A good friend and neighbour arrived within minutes of my call to stay with the boys and I very carefully drove to the hospital, despite my full body shakes.

I arrived at the hospital to very grim reports on how Nicholas was doing. After some technical issues with his dialysis, the doctors had to give him a new line into his other leg and get the dialysis back up and running. Things seemed a little calmer after this was done, but his body was showing signs that his bowel was dying off. If this was the case, there wasn’t much more they could do to help him and we were told he wouldn’t be expected to survive more than 24 hours.

By mid-morning, things had not improved and it was decided that his only hope was to have very high risk surgery to see how extensive the bowel damage was. We were told that it was a massive undertaking to do this procedure on someone healthy, let alone someone as fragile as Nicholas. He’d already been in cardiac arrest once in the past three weeks, so there was a very real possibility he wouldn’t survive the surgery. But we trusted in the advice of our amazing medical team and decided to go ahead.

We called in both sides of the family to see Nicholas, including his big brothers, and collectively shed many tears. Ben and I were able to walk him to the doors of the theatre, give him a big kiss and hope that we’d have the chance to give him more kisses later. While he was in surgery, we walked down to the river, talked and cried, and tried to enjoy this beautiful view together.

It was with much relief that we received a call an hour and a half later to say that Nicholas was out of surgery. We walked back to the hospital to meet with the surgeon, who reported that Nicholas had remained stable throughout the procedure. He does have some damaged sections of bowel, but they were able to save most of it. They will need to go in again in 48 hours to check it again. He’s definitely not out of the woods yet, but he’s in a much better place tonight. Ben and I, on the other hand, are about ready to fall in a heap! Bed will not be far away for us.

Nicholas Love, you are a fighter and we are so proud of you. And you are in so much trouble when you wake up.”

Sadly on Monday I read the heartbreaking news that Nicholas had lost his bottle. “Today the world lost a very bright ray of light. After a brave and noble fight, our littlest Superhero passed away peacefully in the wee hours of this morning, being snuggled by Daddy in his bed and holding Mummy’s hand.”

“Nicholas lived every minute of his four years. He gave love and was loved more than some people are in their whole lives. We feel very honoured that we were chosen to be his family and we’re thankful for every second we got to spend with him.”

Another little angel gone too soon. It certainly made me realise how minor my little worries are. This family lost their “littlest superhero” and as Annie writes they “are terrified about what life will look like without him.”

RIP Little man. Our thoughts are with Annie, Ben and the children.

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