Heartbreaking moment little girl pleads to save her sister's life:
A little girl has pleaded with Australians to help save her terminally-ill sister after changes to her NDIS plan saw her lose access to critical care.
Koa Eve Gibson, three, was diagnosed with a rare and incurable neurological condition called Lissencephaly when she was just five-weeks-old.
The toddler from Geelong, 75km southwest of Melbourne, also suffers from advanced cerebral palsy, chronic lung disease and a host of related conditions.
Koa, or ‘Koko’ as she’s known by loved ones, is currently receiving palliative care at her home where she lives with her two sisters, six-year-old Ava and 10-month-old Sky, and her loving parents Ben and Aleisha.
On Thursday, Ms Gibson posted video of Ava begging for Koa’s life just moments after they found out her NDIS package had been slashed by 55 per cent.
‘Will Koa even survive without all this help?’ the crying little girl asks her mother.
‘Will she? I don’t want her to not live. What if she doesn’t live without all this help? Do the carers want to leave?’
‘I want her to live.
The mother of terminally-ill Geelong three-year-old Koa Gibson posted footage of her older sister Ava begging for her life after they found out her NDIS funding had been slashed
Koa (pictured with her older sister Ava) was diagnosed with a rare and incurable neurological condition called Lissencephaly when she was just five-weeks-old
Ms Gibson reassures her daughter Koa’s carers don’t want to leave and that she’s going to ‘fight really hard’ to make sure that doesn’t happen.
In an Instagram post, the mother-of-three detailed the extent of the NDIS cuts.
‘Today, I was delivered a painful message. NDIS couldn’t even afford my family the decency to speak with me,’ she wrote.
‘Instead they emailed my support coordinator an email at 4:59pm (1 minute prior to closing time, so we could not speak with them) for a decision they made yesterday but did not have the courtesy to advise me on the same day.
‘They waited 30 plus hours and sent an email.’
Ms Gibson revealed funding for Koa’s vital nursing supports, wheelchair accessible car, music therapy and Guide Dogs Australia therapist had been cut.
She said the NDIS had reduced the toddler’s therapies budget and didn’t ‘believe she needs a comfortable relaxing but supporting chair at home’.
‘So she will continue to lay on the couch,’ she continued.
‘They advised she does not afford comforts, she does not afford hydrotherapy, she does not afford musical joy, they have CUT all joy and basic human essentials.
‘But you see Koa finds joy in the simplest things and they have been taken away.’
Funding for three-year-old Koa’s vital nursing supports, wheelchair accessible car, music therapy and Guide Dogs Australia therapist was cut this week
Aleisha Gibson says her terminally-ill daughter Koa is just a ‘cost-cutting exercise’ for the NDIS
Koa relies on oxygen tanks and the help of medical professionals to stay alive and suffers over 120 seizures a month.
Ms Gibson said her daughter was simply a ‘cost-cutting exercise’ for the NDIS.
‘She will die, and this will be neglect on NDIS,’ she wrote.
‘With inhumane employees who lied to us today and didn’t advise us the decision was made. She is a human. My child. My baby.
‘NDIS you have failed a sweet innocent girl. But you won’t hear the last of me, I will fight into her death… I will NOT let you do this to another sick and dying child!’
A GoFundMe is raising money to help the Gibson family buy their own wheelchair accessible car so Koa can leave her home.
‘Our big dream for the Gibsons is to be able to have a holiday as a family, a feat that has been near impossible to achieve to date,’ organisers wrote.
‘In addition to this the Gibsons medical bills are absolutely huge, including the electricity bills required to run her medical equipment 24 hours a day.
‘This equipment is quite literally keeping Koa here with us and as comfortable as possible.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the NDIS for comment.
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