SHE’D SPENT MOST OF HER LIFE IN HOSPITAL, BUT WAS LITTLE OLIVIA REALLY AS SICK AS SHE SEEMED?
Clutching her giant cuddly Olaf from Frozen, 7-year-old Olivia Gant was tired. She’d endured five years of a thousand hospital visits and 25 surgical procedures. But now, in August 2017, her short life was coming to an end. Her mum, heartbroken Kelly, didn’t want her to suffer any more. Wearing a princess dress, she even tried to smile for photographs. But it was time to let her go. Olivia, 2, had moved from Texas to Colorado with her mum and two older sisters in 2012. She was already suffering from medical issues and Kelly took her to the local hospital. She said Olivia had a history of health problems, including seizures. She told the doctors that her daughter struggled to digest food, and that she was constipated. With minor intervention, the constipation was quickly resolved and Olivia was also prescribed anti-seizure medication. But in July 2014, a neurologist questioned if the medications were necessary. There was no evidence of seizures, yet Olivia continued to take it. Kelly was still worried, telling the doctors her daughter was unwilling or unable to eat normally. By September 2014, Olivia had been hospitalised three times for constipation. Two months later, surgeons agreed to perform an ileostomy. Then 4, Olivia’s small intestine was re-routed, and she was fitted with a bag, which drained waste through a hole in her stomach. It was drastic, but it was hoped the op would relieve Olivia’s constipation. Yet she continued to have digestive problems.
SAD ANNOUNCEMENT
Within a year, she’d been fitted with three types of feeding tubes. No longer able to consume food, Olivia received all nutrition through her veins. Through it all, she stayed happy and smiley. As the brave tot sat in her hospital bed, hooked up to wires and tubes, she was surrounded by her favourite toys, never wore hospital gowns, only princess dresses. Her mum documented their journey on a blog. “She is the strongest little girl I have ever met”, Kelly wrote.
Then, in July 2015, she posted a heartbreaking announcement that Olivia’s illness was terminal. Kelly set up a fundraising page online, to help fulfil all her daughter’s dreams. After hearing about Olivia’s plight, a charity for terminally ill children offered Olivia the chance to fulfil a wish.
“I want to battle with Batman,” she said. In February 2017, local newspapers featured Olivia’s ‘Bat Princess’ party, costing more than £8,000. Dressed in a mask and shiny purple cape, Olivia arrived in a limousine. She w
