Kimberley's heartbreaking discovery while parked outside Bunnings: 'He would have died'

Kimberley Zahra was trying to breastfeed her newborn son Patrick in a Bunnings parking lot when alarm bells started going off in her head.

Hours later, a single act from a hospital intern saved his life.

The red flags were there when Patrick was born in August 2020, but Kimberley didn't truly start to worry until he was about four weeks old.

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"Patrick always sweated as a baby," the mum-of-two tells 9honey.

"When you were holding him, or when you put him down, your arm was wet. His head was always hot. He grunted a lot. He didn't really cry as a baby, just grunted."

Concerned, she and husband Shane spoke to their local doctor who reassured them Patrick probably just had wind.

They went home but kept a close eye on Patrick and noticed soon after that his belly was swollen and hard to the touch.

It wasn't until he was about eight weeks old and Kimberley was trying to breastfeed Patrick in her car while parked outside Bunnings that she realised it was serious.

"He just couldn't get comfortable," she says, "I couldn't get him to latch, because he couldn't bend his body because his belly was that hard."

Scared, she called a nurse who also suggested Patrick was just gassy and needed a "good poo".

Unsatisfied with that answer, Kimberley had Shane drive her to the local hospital that very night.

Lockdown rules meant only one parent could go inside with baby Patrick, so Kimberley headed into the emergency department alone and was told yet again that her baby probably had wind.

She was on the verge of being sent home when a hospital intern spoke up and urged doctors to perform an ultrasound, which revealed something sinister inside Patrick.

"If that scan didn't get done, I would have been sent home and he would have died," Kimberley says.

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Doctors told her to call Shane and have him come to the hospital the following morning but couldn't say more until Patrick had undergone additional tests.

They didn't need to say anything for her motherly intuition to kick into overdrive.

"You hear nurses whispering and you kind of pick up the vibe that it's not going to be good news," Kimberley says.

"I asked the ultrasound man, 'Have you found something?', which I probably should never have done … and he said, 'There's a mass, but I can't say anything.'"

She collapsed, overtaken by nausea and dread at those eight words. Later, she quietly confessed to her husband that she feared the worst: cancer. 

Tragically, her worst nightmares came true just a few hours later when a handful of doctors filed into Patrick's hospital room.

The only word Kimberley really took in as they started to speak was "cancer".

Barely two months old, Patrick was diagnosed with stage 4S neuroblastoma.

A huge tumour had been found on his adrenal gland and liver, which is what caused his belly to swell so much, and he would have to start treatment in a matter of weeks.

"My biggest fear was him dying," Kimberley admits.

"I remember driving down to the hospital when he was first diagnosed and thinking, 'I can't look at you, because I can't fall in love with you even more if I'm going to lose you.'"

At 12 weeks of age, Patrick started four rounds of chemotherapy that lasted six months.

The first round was so brutal it almost killed him and his parents were thrown headfirst into the terrifying, isolating world of childhood cancer in the midst of a pandemic.

While Shane held down the fort at home with their eldest son Harry, Kimberley spent countless lonely days in hospital watching Patrick fight.

Questions like "Why me? Why us?" bounced around her brain as she tried to come to terms with the traumatic hand they'd been dealt.

It wasn't until Patrick finished chemotherapy in 2021 and had the large tumour inside his belly surgically removed that she truly started to believe he would make it through the ordeal.

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Now four, Patrick has been in remission for two years and is a playful, bubbly little boy but Kimberley still gets anxious every time he has to go for a scan or check-up.

"You don't want to say it's going too good, because it can just change in the blink of an eye," she says, but she's learning to live with it.

The whole family are set to take part in the Run2Cure event in Melbourne on November 10 to raise funds and awareness for neuroblastoma, and show other families that they're not alone.

Kimberley wants to do everything she can to help other families facing childhood cancer and urges all parents to trust their instincts when it comes to their children's health.

Kimberley and Shane are sharing Patrick's story in support of Run2Cure Neuroblastoma on Sunday November 10, in Melbourne. Register to be part of the 10km, 5km, 3km or 1km little heroes walk or donate at run2cure.org.au

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