A young girl whose family has been detained by the Australian government for more than three years has arrived in Perth to receive medical treatment for a blood infection.
Three-year-old Tharnicaa was diagnosed with sepsis, after almost two weeks of feeling unwell.
She was hospitalised on Christmas Island yesterday after 12 days of a high fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, and dizziness.
Family friend Angela Fredericks told 9News authorities decided to fly Tharnicaa off Christmas Island when her temperature skyrocketed to above 40 degrees.
“It has been a very intense and scary 24 hours,” Ms Fredericks said.
Tharnicaa fell ill on May 25 but her mother said detention staff brushed off requests for her to be taken to hospital, instead giving her Panadol and Nurofen, Ms Fredericks said.
When the young girl’s temperature eventually passed 40 degrees, she was given medical attention.
“That was after four days of quite severe sickness where she had fever and vomiting and that’s on the back of having two weeks of already being unwell,” Ms Fredericks said.
After a chest x-ray came back with concerning results a medical evacuation was arranged.
Tharnicaa was flown via medivac flight from Christmas Island to Perth on Monday before an ambulance took her to Perth Children’s Hospital for urgent treatment.
“There’s just that question of if she had gotten treatment just a few days earlier all of this could have been avoided,” Ms Fredericks said.
The little girl’s Tamil parents, Priya and Nades Murugappan, and her older sister Kopika had been living in Biloela, Queensland, seeking asylum from Sri Lanka.
The family’s home in the rural Queensland town was raided at 5am on March 5, 2018, and the family has been held in immigration detention ever since.
They have been on Christmas Island since 2019.
Kopika and Tharnicaa were both born in Australia.
