Year 6 student Tahlia Dias update

Tahlia Dias is a delightful member of our school community. At the recent Year 6 camp while water sliding Tahlia suffered a stroke.  The supervision was such that she was immediately withdrawn from the water, an ambulance was called and she was eventually airlifted to the Sydney Children's Hospital. Although lucid throughout the experience, Tahlia initially lost complete movement down the left side of the body.

Tahlia's parents have been very appreciative of the support shown by many families at Covenant over the following weeks. Alister and Neve have been keeping the staff at Covenant updated. They agreed for these updates to be shared with the wider school community (see below). We encourage our school community to continue to pray for Tahlia and her family as well as offering practical support through things like the Community Freezer.


Here is an update from Tahlia's father Sunday March 29 2010

Well it’s now day 14, and we are all settling into a new routine. Tahlia is stable and now undergoing her rehabilitation (will now be between 3 to 6 months in hospital assuming no more negative incidents). I have an enormous new respect for any parent or carer who looks after anyone with a disability or difficulty.

We have had a very positive few days.

- Tahlia now has slight feeling in her left side.
- She still has no movement in her left arm or hand
- But she is able to lift her left leg slightly by using her lower back and core trunk muscles (The doctors say that this is a very positive sign)
- She can lie on her back lift her lower back & behind off the bed in a bridge position.
- She is laughing and joking again
- She does one hour of Physio and 45 minutes of Occupational therapy everyday
- She started at the hospital school – 2 hrs per day
- She is using her right leg to lift her left leg to help us get her in and out of the bed into the wheelchair very quickly
- In just 4 days she can write legible sentences with her right hand (She was left handed)
- Mr Eatough her teacher kindly visited with his wife Sophie and baby Noah and dropped in some school work so that Tahlia can stay in touch with her current curriculum

You can imagine that we are all encouraged and getting some sleep but we know that we still have a long journey ahead. Tahlia’s attitude and tenacity has been inspiring. She is in such a positive frame of mind that she is talking about the day that she will “run” out of the hospital.

Yesterday we celebrated Tahlia’s 11th Birthday and the head Neurologist kindly allowed us  to take Tahlia out of Hospital for a couple of hours. So we celebrated her birthday with a small group of family at Centennial Park.  I attached some pics for you.

Again we continue to be touched by the love, kindness, beautiful gifts and well wishes from so many people. Special thanks must go to;

- Our Family, relatives and close friends
- Barbara and Brian (Our kid’s adopted grandparents)
- The wonderful staff at Covenant Christian School
- The kind and supportive Mums, Dads and children at Covie (BTW. The DVD of the whole school wishing Tahlia was amazing. Tahlia watched it 4 times)
- My fantastic friends and colleagues at EMC
- Neeva’s fantastic colleagues at Duo
- Our lovely neighbours
- And everyone else who has also shared a thought or a prayer for Tahlia

As hard as it’s been, we have all grown over the last 14 days, they have been filled with very special moments and conversations. These are the gifts that our beautiful Tahlia have given us. The old cliché of taking each day as it comes has never resinated as much as it does now. I will send another update in a few weeks.


Update from Friday March 19 2010

Dear all,

I have had a chance to go through all your messages and well wishes. Thank you so much for your kind words, flowers, gifts, prayers and offers of help.

We are in Day 4 and reality has started to set in. We are staying strong and positive (We’ve cried, we’ve asked why and we’ve been angry as well). But now we are in solution mode and preparing ourselves for the journey ahead.

The doctors still cannot tell us what caused the stroke. The closest speculation is it may have been caused by abnormal blood vessels in her brain. We have come to learn that there is very little knowledge about childhood stroke and that every case (about 3 in every 100,000 children) is different. The size of the stroke is similar to a small lime on the top of the right side of her brain, and it is smack bang in the area that controls the motor skills of her left side. We have to hope that that are not too many dead cells and that the sick cells will start to heal. This will determine how much movement Tahlia may or may not get back. At this stage she is still unable to move anything on the left side.

On a positive note, she has not had any headaches which indicates that the swelling in her brain may be reducing. Tahlia has really lifted her and our spirits. She is eating well, and talking more. She absolutely amazed us yesterday when she was able to communicate simultaneously with 4 friends on facebook (using her right hand on the keyboard, she is left handed) and have a full on phone conversation with her friend Alisha in Melbourne at the same time. Maybe it’s just the male in me but I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Assuming there aren’t any more negative incidents, Tahlia is commencing Physio, speech therapy and OT.  We hope to have her up in a wheelchair over the next day so we can take her outside into the sunshine and Fairy garden and also the really cool Starlight Express room. At this stage Tahlia is likely to stay in Hospital for at least another 3-4 weeks if everything goes smoothly, unfortunately we don’t know if there could be a reoccurrence.

I have attached a link to a simple booklet if you would like to understand more about our journey, we need the world to understand more about this subject. http://www.strokefoundation.com.au/stroke-in-children

Neeva and I would again like to thank everyone for your support. Our families and close friends have been here for us and we are planning our the next 4 weeks so that we have at least 1 or 2 family members staying with us to help. Lachlan and Tahlia will go back to school on Monday and Neeva and I will tag team with the overnighters at the hospital. I am hoping that from next week we can start to receive more visitors as I believe this will be great for Tahlia.

Through this difficult time we have stayed close to each other, our families, our friends and God. We are thankful for every second of good health and any hint of progress that our Angel receives.

Love Alister Dias



See update > Tahlia Dias visits Year 6