MONTREAL — Lindy Sevillo and her daughter Arville are settling into their room at the brand new Montreal Children’s Hospital.
“Right now we are in this comfortable room,” said Sevillo.
“At least one of the stresses, part of the stress is gone and we can concentrate on our daughter.”
The last eight months haven’t been easy for the family.
They’ve included Arville undergoing almost a dozen surgeries and a stressful move to the Glen Site – something Sevillo wasn’t planning to be a part of.
“We thought before the move that we’d go home because it’s been eight months,” she explained, sitting with her daughter.
“It’s too much but it’s OK that we are here also for her to get better.”
Throughout the move, Sevillo has relied on the comfort of the nurses and doctors who helped her through so much, despite facing some of their own challenges.
“Because of the big, huge hospital, we have to familiarize first,” said Sevillo. “The staff, the parents and visitors and everybody.”
READ MORE: Montreal Children’s Hospital completes move to Glen Site
Three-year-old Arville was admitted to hospital last October after doctors discovered she had a deadly birth defect.
“She was not breathing during the night,” said Sevillo.
“It’s 235 times without breathing during the night.”
Born premature, Arville’s life has been a fight for survival since day one.
“She stayed in the hospital for seven months from birth and she’s been incubated for two months and when she was five months old, she underwent already two major surgeries,” she said.
READ MORE: Moving the Children’s: One mother’s heartbreaking good-bye
The complications haven’t stopped coming.
“There’s no hole connecting her oesophagus to her stomach, so the saliva itself wasn’t draining itself for three years,” said Sevillo.
“Three years. It’s good that she survived.”
But so far, despite the struggle, Sevillo said everything is working itself out.
“Someone has to be with her 24 hours, so non-stop,” she said. “I never sleep at my house. I only slept, I remember two times.”
Arville still has a long road ahead of her.
READ MORE: Moving the Children’s: A nurse’s walk down memory lane
“I’m very positive because she survived for three years,” said Sevillo. “She survived how much with all of this. She knows.”
Sevillo just hopes one day, she’ll be able to take her daughter home.
rachel.lau@globalnews.ca
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