‘They adore each other’: Brother and sister, 13 and 18, who have the same deadly illness are forced to stay apart – even though she’s fighting a desperate battle after being told she’s got six weeks to live
- Claudia Coll and her brother Jordan have been battling cystic fibrosis together
- The Melbourne teenagers must stay apart or risk Claudia’s health deteriorating
- The 18-year-old had a lung transplant, her immune system has been weakened
A young brother and sister who both suffer from cystic fibrosis are being kept apart because of a horror bug that’s resistant to antibiotics – and left one in a desperate fight for life.
Melbourne siblings Claudia, 18, and Jordan Coll, 13, have spent most of their lives in hospitals battling CF – which attacks the lungs and digestive system.
But since Claudia’s health took a dramatic turn this week, the pair have been forced to avoid contact.
The Coll family was told Claudia had just six weeks to live after Burkholderia cepacia – a pathogen that can cause immunodeficiency and pneumonia in people with CF – took hold of her lungs.
Claudia, 18, and her brother Jordan, 13, (both pictured) must be kept apart while she recovers
Claudia Coll (pictured) had to have a lung transplant after her health deteriorated due to Burkholderia cepacia
‘A month ago we were told by doctors at Melbourne’s Monash Children’s Hospital her lung function was below 30 per cent,’ Mr Coll said told Yahoo News.
Doctors gave Claudia a life expectancy of just three years, but on Tuesday ‘the unthinkable’ happened.
‘I was told with the lungs she has she has six weeks [to live], but if she gets worse that could have six hours,’ Mr Coll said.
That night, Claudia had a lung transplant which saved her life.
‘A month ago we were told by doctors at Melbourne’s Monash Children’s Hospital her lung function was below 30 per cent,’ said Claudia’s father Peter Coll (pictured together)
Doctors gave Claudia a life expectancy of just three years, but on Tuesday ‘the unthinkable’ happened
But Jordan also has B. cepacia and he is not allowed to get close to his sister while she is recovering from the transplant, because the procedure weakens her immune system.
‘With B. cepacia you never know what’s going to happen. We don’t know how long they could potentially be apart,’ Mr Coll said.
He said it was heart wrenching as they ‘adore each other’.
Claudia was six weeks old when she was diagnosed with CF. She has been admitted to hospital three or four times every year.
She had to have part of her right lung removed in 2012.
Following her latest health scare, family friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help care for Claudia – and support Mr Coll, who is the sole earner for the household.
The page has amassed nearly $50,000 in just five days.
‘I hope everyone understands what this means to us, as I work for myself,’ Mr Coll wrote.
Claudia was six weeks old when she was diagnosed with CF. She has been admitted to hospital three or four times every year
‘If I don’t work I don’t earn money, as it currently stands I cant work at the moment as I can not focus on anything other than this.’
Mr Coll said Claudia was still riding a ‘rollercoaster’ since her transplant, but she was ‘soldering on’.
‘When the antibiotics are winning the fight she can sit up for about 20 minutes and actually have a conversation, she is the amazing cheeky girl we all know and love,’ he said.
‘Last night she was feeling good and stepped the four steps to the toilet and her oxygen dropped through the floor and she started vomiting and couldn’t breathe and she started having a panic attack.
‘She had to be helped back to her bed and placed on oxygen to try to stabilise her, she then had fevers all night and barely slept it – she is soldering on.’
Claudia was six weeks old when she was diagnosed with CF. She has been admitted to hospital three or four times every year