Houltham Family - Dunedin
The Houltham family of Dunedin are a family of four: mum Mel, dad Karl and their children, nine-year-old Beckett and eight-year-old Honor. They also had a beloved fur-baby Cardrona, a ten-year-old German Shepherd who sadly crossed the rainbow bridge in 2024 (10 days shy of turning 11). Cardrona loved her brother and sister and was always by their side.
Life before Honor’s diagnosis consisted of trips to nearby Wanaka, family walks and reveling in Beckett as he grew into an active wee toddler. When Honor was just 13 days old, the family had a newborn photoshoot booked in at 9am. Honor was quiet and still in the shoot – “a perfect wee angel!” mum Mel explains. But during the day Honor’s health began to deteriorate; she vomited a couple of times and became cold and pale by the afternoon. It was a cold winter's day, so Mel just thought it was her body saying she was hungry and cold. But when Honor started to blow bubbles during her feeding at 6pm, the family decided to rush her to Urgent Care. “From there everything is a bit of a blur,” says Mel, “we thought it might just be a virus – but on assessment we were told her body was shutting down.”
The family raced to the Urgent Doctors around the corner from Dunedin Hospital, and there they were told to go to ED straight away. Upon arrival, Honor was triaged immediately, with the room filling with doctors and nurses. “Honor was breathing but hardly,” says Mel, “the on-call doctor, Dr Kiran More, was called in and he took one look at Honor and put an intraosseous needle into her leg. She was then put into a coma and taken to NICU from there.” After a number of tests over the next 6-12 hours and a very sleepless night for Karl and Mel, the results showed that Honor had very little heart function, was a “very sick baby” and it was highly probable she had suffered a heart attack - aged just 13 days old. 
Honor was then transported by air ambulance to the national children's hospital in Auckland. Once the specialist team arrived from Auckland, they prepped her to fly with Karl, arriving in Auckland at 3am in the morning. Mel arrived at 11pm to be checked into Ronald McDonald House at Domain. The accessibility to the hospital just 200 metres away was critical for the Houltham family, who immediately felt at home at Ronald McDonald House. “Having volunteers to help us out, that cooked for us and the access to the hospital was just mind blowing – it was just incredible,” Mel says, “our son Beckett could also come up to visit Honor – that was just magic.” Mel found the other families at the House to be a huge source of strength during their time there, as they understood the rollercoaster that they were on. “It’s so challenging to pack up and live in another city to get care for a child who really needs it while leaving your first born back home - a 20-month-old son!" says Mel, "it was super difficult for Karl to fly back and forth between Dunedin and Auckland. He was having to run his business alongside caring for Beckett and be by Honor’s side in Auckland. It was a really traumatic and difficult time for us all but the other families at the House really understood what we were going through."
The family stayed in Auckland for eight weeks and Honor received a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy - a heart attack which had caused major damage to her left ventricle and her heart function. Her first two years of life were filled with constant monitoring and medication to get her to where she is today: a thriving and energetic eight-year-old, cleared of any heart damage. “We are one of the very lucky families. We trusted our gut, took her to ED and got the help she needed. Along with our quick thinking, Dr Kiran More definitely saved her life – we owe him a lot and thank him even more,” says Mel. “We are so grateful to the team at Domain House for being so accommodating to our family. Everything about the House made a traumatic time that much easier. We feel we are stronger as a family due to the journey we’ve been on; Honor is a miracle little lady who has survived so much – and her big brother just adores her.”