Taito Louis and Taunese Lene are grieving the loss of their son, Misiafa Lene, who died on April 13 in Auckland after contracting dengue fever in Samoa.
The 12-year-old was medically evacuated from Samoa to Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital for urgent care. However, despite every effort to save him, Misiafa died peacefully in his parents’ arms.
Speaking to NZ Herald, the couple hopes the death of their child serves as a reminder for others to take precautionary measures during the dengue outbreak.
“The pain is beyond anything. We don’t want another family to go through what we are going through.”
Dengue fever is a viral disease spread by infected mosquito bites, particularly Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Prevention of an infection can include wearing long sleeves and pants, using insect repellent, avoiding mosquito breeding sites such as swamps or places with standing water, and using mosquito nets when sleeping.
Taito and Taunese say they’re struggling to cope with how quickly their son succumbed to the disease.
Misiafa fell ill on Sunday 6 April, initially experiencing a headache and fever. By Thursday, the doctors diagnosed him with severe dengue fever.
“He was vomiting blood by then and they said they’d never seen anything like that before,” Taito said.
Misiafa was medically evacuated to Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital on Saturday 12 April, desperate for a cure.
After a brain surgery to relieve pressure was unsuccessful, the family made the difficult decision to take him off life support.
“When he started bleeding from his ears… we didn’t want him to suffer. It was very hard,” Taunese said.
“They brought another bed next to him and we lay there with him, just listening to his heartbeat. His last heartbeat was around 6.30 that night.”
Earlier this month Samoa’s Ministry of Health declared a dengue fever outbreak with a total of 15 confirmed cases since January with one reported death.
Neighbouring islands in the Pacific, including Tonga and Fiji, have also reported a significant rise in dengue cases in recent weeks.
For Tonga, 520 cases were confirmed on April 17 with 8 currently hospitalised and in stable conditions, including the youngest patient aged just 2 months old.
Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Services confirmed one dengue related death on April 4, with over 5000 cases confirmed nationwide.
Te Marae Ora, Ministry of Health, has confirmed four dengue cases in Rarotonga. They will follow the World Health Organisation’s guidelines should an outbreak be declared.
With dengue outbreaks surging across the Pacific, travellers are strongly advised to take urgent measures to prevent infection.
If you’re experiencing dengue fever symptoms such as a sudden rise in temperature, intense headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pains, nausea and vomiting, bleeding and abdominal pain, please seek medical attention immediately.
