Auckland girl Eve, 2, hospitalised 25 times with 'wheeze'

Life is an ongoing battle for Auckland dad Simon Connor and his family.

Two-year-old daughter Eve suffers from bouts of 'wheeze' – a painful respiratory condition that makes breathing difficult.

It's seen Eve hospitalised more than 25 times already in her short life.

Her stays range from two to three days to longer periods.

“It’s a constant battle trying to juggle life and Eve constantly going to hospital,” Connor said.

“The worst episode was when she was admitted to Waitākere Hospital and then transferred to Starship. She was in intensive care there for four to five days.”

Eve is one of around 3000 Kiwi children hospitalised with 'wheeze' each year.

It gets its name from what some health experts describe as “a continuous, high pitched hissing sound" patients make as they try to breathe.

Connor said he and his wife take turns being with Eve 24/7 when she’s in hospital and that means taking time off work.

“We’re not rich people, we’re low socio-economic and 'wheeze' is part of that," he said.

“And the ongoing financial cost of taking time off work is like a snowball going downhill.”

Wheezing illnesses are common in young children worldwide and while sometimes linked to asthma, the condition is also caused by respiratory infection and illnesses affecting the lungs.

Connor believed their home contributes to Eve’s health woes.

“We’ve got not such a good house so it exacerbates the problem." He admitted to feeling apprehension that winter was on the way.

“I’m really aware of her breathing and changes in her. It does come on quickly,” he said of Eve developing wheeze.

"She can be fine in the morning then it comes on fast. It’s difficult going into hospital and repeating yourself over and over again.”

Connor is encouraging families whose children regularly experience 'wheeze' to sign up to an Arrow Drug Trial now underway in Aotearoa and Australia.

The trial here is being administered by paediatric staff in four hospitals – Starship, Whakatāne, Waitākere and Tauranga, along with Kidz First Community Health in Counties Manukau.

Over 30 hospitals in Australia are also taking part in the trial, aimed at reducing the number of young children admitted to hospital with the most common respiratory complaint in both countries.

“Wheeze is a noise that’s made when the air flow in your lungs is disturbed,” said Cameron Grant, researcher and paediatrician at Starship Hospital.

“That happens because all the airways in your lungs are narrower than they normally are and that narrowness is caused by inflammation created by this viral effect.”

Health information points to ‘wheeze’ in children aged under five as being common, but doesn’t always mean the child has asthma.

Causes of ‘wheeze’ include viral infections that can affect the lungs and upper respiratory tract.

Around 3000 children are admitted to hospital in New Zealand each year and paediatric experts believe this number can be reduced by a third if the drug OM-85 is publicly funded.

OM-85 has been used successfully in Europe for over 30 years and works by stimulating immune cells in the tummy to fight viruses and reduce inflammation.

“The medicine is not currently funded or available in New Zealand as no-one's done a project to show it prevents hospital admissions,” Grant said.

“Because it's such a big problem here, we decided we would do a bigger study than anyone else has done and see if we can show it prevents hospital admissions. If does we'll have good evidence to show to Pharmac, for them to then approve it and fund it, so we can present it without families having to pay for it.”

Health workers in Aotearoa are looking for around 500 families with a child who fits criteria to participate in a 12-month trial.

More than 3000 participants are also being sought in Australia.

Criteria includes being hospitalised with wheeze, having two episodes in the past year and being aged between one and six years of age.

Parents are required to administer the ‘wheeze sufferer’ with a 10-day course of the drug (or placebo) each month and fill out an online questionnaire.

The trial will take several years to complete with results expected in four years.

Contact details for those seeking further information on the trial are:

arrow@auckland.ac.nz

027 200 4680

0800 CIRCAN (OSOO 247226)