Leah fights bad fever

Two weeks after undergoing major cancer surgery in the US, the three-year-old Maltese girl who has captured the sympathy of the entire nation is still in intensive care, fighting fever and an infection. “We’re living day by day, hoping tomorrow she’ll be better than today,” Leah’s father Jonathan Xuereb told The Times yesterday. “When I leave her bedside at 11pm, I rush back at 5am the following day, hoping she’ll take a turn for the better.” Leah’s doctors are confident that the 12-hour operation to remove a very rare form of stomach cancer was successful and the entire tumour was removed. But last week her body temperature started fluctuating and on Wednesday the little girl was in “unbearable pain”. Despite increasing her painkiller dosage, the pain did not subside. But to the amazement of her parents and doctors, Leah took about 20 steps on Thursday morning. In the evening, however, the doctors had to remove some bacteria from her abdomen, the father said. Since then, she has been sleeping throughout the day. On Friday the fever dropped, but it shot up again the following day. Yesterday, her parents were informed she was suffering from another type of infection. Throughout the...