Bianca and Daniel Hector of New South Wales, Australia, were overjoyed when they learned they were pregnant with a set of twins early this year, but only six weeks later their joy was stopped short. Their oldest daughter, Mackenzie, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and they knew that life would be changed forever. Just months later amidst Mackenzie's ongoing treatment, the family was hit with another heartbreak. Shortly after the twins were born, one of the babies stopped breathing, and Brooklyn ultimately died from sudden infant death syndrome. To make matters even more heart-wrenching, she passed away one day before a TV segment the family participated in about the twins' birth was scheduled to air.
The parents found out they were pregnant with their twins in January 2019.
Speaking with CafeMom, Daniel says they have two older children, MacKenzie and Peyton, and were overjoyed last winter when they learned their family of four would become a family of six. But in late March, they received the first round of devastating news.
"On the 27th of March, two days after my birthday, Mackenzie was getting worryingly sick," Daniel says.
The next day, MacKenzie's mom rushed her little girl to the Children's Hospital at Westmead for more information. "Bianca took her to hospital and then we found out she had cancer, which was leukemia," Daniel says.
"I was in shock and completely broke down from hearing that," Daniel recalls of the phone call Bianca made to him from the hospital. The next couple of months were hard for the family. Bianca's pregnancy progressed as they continued to search for medical answers to help save Mackenzie's life.
"Our lives have been over shadowed with numerous lumbar punctures bone marrow biopsies blood and platelet transfusions and chemotherapy," Bianca wrote on a GoFundMe page.
"[Mackenzie] was further diagnosed as high risk which insists of more intensive treatment and after each chemo treatment she constantly has different side effects like mucositis, a descended stomach, [high] temperatures etc," she continued. "[T]his has caused her to spend most of this year in the hospital on antibiotics."
There was finally a bright spot during the summer. On August 20, Bianca gave birth to their twins, Brooklyn and Hunter.
The couple even had the opportunity to document both Bianca's delivery and MacKenzie's treatment for a TV show called One Born Every Minute, which follows real family experiences in the busy maternity ward. But then Mackenzie took a turn for the worst.
"In the beginning of September, Kenzie became extremely unwell with sepsis and ended up in ICU for a week," Bianca wrote on the GoFundMe page. "This was very trying on us as we had a 1-year-old and newborn twins to care for and have found it extremely tough as we are both unable to work and have lived on one income for the year."
Three months later, Mackenzie fell ill once again. "I thought finding out Kenzie had cancer and ending up in ICU would have been the worst time we had this year," her mom wrote. "Little did I know the worst was yet to come."
On November 18, Daniel tells us he was home with Peyton and the twins while Bianca was at the hospital with Mackenzie.
"I went to have a shower and when I came out I went to check on Brooklyn as Hunter was in the swing and I could see him," he says. "As I walk past him to go to Brooklyn, I noticed something wasn't right. I put my hand on her to feel her breathing, which she wasn’t, and then I tapped her to see if I would get a reaction, which I didn’t. So I picked her up and put her chest to my ear to see if I could hear a heatbeat, which I couldn’t."
Just as Daniel called emergency services for help, Bianca walked through the door, and once she saw what was going on, she began performing CPR on her daughter.
"Then the paramedics arrived and rushed her to hospital," he continues. Bianca went with Brooklyn to the hospital "and they tried their best to bring my little girl back to me, from injecting adrenaline [to] shocking her little tiny body and doing compressions," she explained on the fundraising page. "Just after 7 pm that night my little angel was pronounced dead never to come home."
The loss was unbearable, but as a final knife to the heart, their segment on 'One Born Every Minute,'featuring the twins' birth,was going to air the very next day.
Imagine having the worst thing in the world happen to you and then have to be reminded of your loss the very next day. That was what Bianca faced on the day her episode was supposed to air.
Given the timing of Brooklyn's death, the hospital reached out to the network before the episode aired and asked for compassion for the grieving family.
The network agreed, and instead of airing the episode on November 19 as scheduled, it delayed it until December 3 with the family's consent, according to Yahoo.
"I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to bring myself to watch it," she wrote in an update to her GoFundMe post on December 3. "However I did and although it was extremely hard to watch I’m glad I did."
In a different update, the mom was even more open about her grief.
"It will be two weeks tomorrow since I lost you the time has gone so quickly and the grief is still so raw," she wrote to Brooklyn on her GoFundMe page. "Everyday is a new challenge to even get up in the morning because all I want is you. I want to know why you were taken from us why I will never get to see you smile take your first steps say your first word grow up."
For now, the parents are trying to be strong for the rest of their kids, and the fundraising page has received over $105,000 in donations to help them as they get their family back on its feet.
"Nothing will ever bring back our little princess, nothing will ever stop the pain we are experiencing," Bianca wrote. "But we are asking for the help to try and keep things as normal as possible for Mackenzie, Peyton and Hunter."
As she mourns the loss of her baby sister, Mackenzie is continuing her battle with cancer and fighting with everything she has.
"Mackenzie is at the end of a block of chemotherapy and will have a little break so her counts can recover before she starts the next block," her mom shared. "She is doing incredibly well and we are all so proud of her."
However, Bianca admits that she's having an understandably hard time coping. "[Hunter] continues to thrive each and every single day although I am really struggling with holding him at the moment as he is a constant reminder that she is no longer with us," she wrote. "However he is such a beautiful bubbly boy and has a great little personality already.
"I cannot describe the feelings or emotions we're all experiencing at the moment and am finding it hard to continue each and every day," she added. "But we have three small children who depend on us and we can’t just give up."
