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| Zara age 2 NYC Summer 2007 |
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Zara was born in May 2005 a small but healthy baby girl, as one of a twin to proud parents Priscilla and Zannie, and brother Java. The McRae family had only arrived in Sydney when Zara and her twin brother Tyger were only 2 months old to start a new life after having lived in Japan for 10 years.
Only two weeks after their move, Zara fell critically ill and was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy, a rare life-threatening disease of the heart which can attack a perfectly normal and healthy heart of any age and destroy it with sudden, drastic and deadly results. The cause of this lethal illness is not known and there is no known cure. The disease suspected to be brought on by a cold-like virus, attacked and swelled her heart. Her heart too weak to pump her blood around her body efficiently, had created a back log of excess fluid in her lungs, causing her to have difficulties in breathing and drowning in her own blood. Zara was in end stage heart failure. Her heart ejection fraction (pumping capacity) was at 10%, but with loads of love, care, prayers, and various medications her condition has stabilized for the time being (at 18%). However the damage is irreversible, and the medications are only a temporary solution to manage the symptoms. Zara is a ticking time bomb, with her current life expectancy being anything from 3 months to about 5 years without a life-saving heart transplant procedure. Cardiomyopathy can strike anyone at any age in any racial group, and is the leading cause for heart transplants. The odds of an infant falling victim to this deadly illness is one in a 100,000.
Since her diagnosis, Zara has spent much of her short life visiting hospitals on a regualr basis for laboratory tests and screens, and she will eventually require a heart transplant to "cure" her from this deadly disease and so the McRaes have made another move, this time to New York for her benefit. It has been less than a year since they moved to Sydney and now they have made their 2nd international move. Although adults and older children may have heart transplant surgeries performed in various major cities around Australia, infant heart transplants are so rare in Australia the chance of Zara getting a donor heart in Australia in time (if they were in Melbourne) is quite slim. Her chances of receiving a donor heart is far greater in America than in Australia. Once on the donor list in the USA, her chances of receiving a heart in time is statistically 70-80%. Zara also has the advantage of being a dual national citizen of Australia and America, which will place her on a priority list when the time comes for her to be waitlisted, as citizens of that country get priority over non-citizens, as is the case in Australia.
This is why the McRaes have decided to move to USA, to give their baby girl a better chance at survival. We don't doubt Australia's medical system or the level of technical care and abilities in the procedure, we just want Zara to have the best possible chances of getting that matching donor heart when the time comes. Zannie had been forced to resign from his new job in Sydney and luckily landed a similar position in New York. Unfortunately for them, America does not have a Medicare system (like that in Australia) established to cover costs for such a procedure, and so the need for fundraising to raise the necessary costs. In USA, you must be in a certain income bracket to be eligible for Medicare, and our income exceeds this limit - by not much but it does. The McRaes hope with a new heart Zara will live to experience many birthdays to come.
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