17 hours ago
Living life to the fullest after beating all the odds
Phoebe Finlay looks pretty good for someone who has died several times.
And if she was an adult at the time, the 17-year-old said it might have scarred her for life.
She was born prematurely at Dunedin Hospital at just 25 weeks and was just a little bit bigger than a pound of butter.
She was so premature doctors gave her "zero chance" of survival.
Her parents Ian and the late Katrina Finlay were told to prepare for the worst.
She was in the neonatal intensive care unit at Dunedin Hospital for four weeks, and it is only by sheer luck that she is around today to talk about her life.
Her heart, stomach and bowel had not developed enough to cope with living outside the womb and she needed major microsurgeries to keep her alive.
One of the most important surgeries needed was on her stomach, because she was still too premature to digest nutrients.
Unfortunately, Dunedin Hospital did not have a suitable surgeon to do it.
By luck, there was a surgery conference in Dunedin on the day Phoebe was born, and one of the microsurgeons speaking at the conference was able to do the surgery.
Mr Finlay said it saved his daughter's life.
"She had a lot of operations, but she just kept waking up.
"She's a real fighter."
It was the first of several major microsurgeries before she was flown to Christchurch to see if doctors there could help with her vision problems.
On the way to Dunedin Airport, the ambulance stopped twice because she died on the way, and they managed to bring her back.
And when she turned up at Christchurch Hospital, doctors were amazed she was still alive.
After 130 days in hospital in Dunedin and Christchurch, three months on life support, five major operations and 75 blood transfusions, Phoebe was back at Dunedin Hospital at the weekend, to visit staff and parents at the neonatal intensive care unit.
"I'm visiting to see the doctors and nurses that saved my life.
"They saw how sick I was, and I've come back here to show the staff how well I'm doing.
"I also want to talk to other mums and dads with premature babies, and say 'don't give up hope, because I'm living proof that what they do here can get you through — just hang in there'."
Phoebe and her dad live in Brisbane these days, but she fiercely clings to her Kiwi identity.
Despite her continued vision impairment, Phoebe's main passion in life is sport — particularly triathlon and tennis.
"When I play tennis, the ball has got like this rattle in it, and I hear that.
"You get three bounces to hit the ball."
She is in the top three blind/low-vision players in Australian women's tennis.
She also recently came fourth in the Australian National Paratriathlon, and is aiming to be selected for the New Zealand Paralympic team to compete at the 2032 Paralympics.
Because of her medical history, and the loss of her mum to cancer 18 months ago, Phoebe said she never took anything for granted.
Her mum was not only her mother — she was her eyes and her carer.
"So you always make sure you say 'I love you' every day, because you just don't know how long you've got.
"Life's too short. You have to make the most of it.
"And most importantly, overcoming adversity just makes you stronger — more resilient."
