UAE-based German expat: ‘The first two years of my daughter’s life were spent in hospital’

UAE-based German expat: ‘The first two years of my daughter’s life were spent in hospital’

The first injection came hours after Aurelia was born as her mother lay rigid on a hospital bed disbelieving the sudden turn of events. “I had a perfect pregnancy and approached it like most things in my life in a rather structured, Germanic manner: I read all the books available, took all the vitamins, exercised and mentally planned the next 18 years of my daughter’s life,” says Isabel Sander-Reeves, a German expat based in Dubai. Soon after the emergency C-section, that joy turned to despair – the doctors called for blood transfusions over and over, so much so that at one point, 24 hours into her life, they had run out of the O negative blood type she needed. As needles pierced her tiny delicate arms, Aurelia cried out – but her mum couldn’t comfort her; the operation had left her bed bound. “As the lab in the hospital I delivered had limited capacities, my husband was sent to drop vials of her blood at the lab of another hospital for genetic testing. So while I was unable to get out of bed after the C-section, our baby was ion NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] and my husband was driving