When Leah Goulis put her two children to bed on a Friday night last month, it was like any other Friday.
The kids came home from school, enjoyed Macca’s for dinner as a special treat, and chatted to their friends on their iPads while the footy was on and everyone hung out.
Once it was time for bed, Leah’s daughter Madeleine (Maddie), 12, said “Good night, Mum. Love you, see you in the morning,” as she did every night. Tragically, these were some of the last words the year six student would say to her mother before the unthinkable happened.
The next morning, on August 1, Maddie suffered a sudden brain haemorrhage and was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery. What her mum did in those moments before paramedics arrived at their Sydney home ultimately saved her daughter’s life.
“She went to bed fine. We told each other we would see each other in the morning,” Leah, a respected news.com.au journalist, told this publication exclusively.
The mum-of-two said she heard someone fussing in the hallway at about 5am the next morning. She then heard Maddie say she didn’t feel well and “needed to vomit.”
“So I quickly got up and ran to her and she was running from her bedroom to vomit. I said, ‘it’s OK I’ll hold your hair back’,” the 44-year-old recalled.
“She was complaining that her head was sore … and then it looked like she fainted.”
At this point Leah called out to her husband, Jerry, and the couple quickly put their daughter onto her bed. It didn’t take long for her mother to realise that something was very wrong, so she called triple-0.
“The next minute they were telling me to do CPR (on my daughter), which I did,” she said.
Leah’s quick thinking in this critical moment, and her ability to remember her essential first aid training from more than a decade ago when she became a parent, doctors later confirmed saved Maddie’s precious life.
From the moment paramedics rushed through the front door, the family’s home was turned into a makeshift ER while they immediately began to treat Maddie.
Police also arrived and kindly sat with Maddie’s older brother, Christopher, who had witnessed everything and was in shock.
“They had my lounge room turned completely upside down with medical equipment and surgical procedures and I thought, ‘this is serious, it’s not just a vomit and a faint, something is going on here’,” Leah said.
“But I didn’t know what it was until we got to the ER and doctors told us she’d had a severe brain bleed.”
Upon arrival, Maddie went straight in for a CT scan, followed by emergency surgery.
“They told us that she’d had a brain bleed and that her brain had swelled up completely and they needed to drain it. That’s all they said to us,” Leah said from her daughter’s hospital bedside, which she has barely left for 24 agonising days.
“They are very honest with you when they say ‘this is critical’. And they are words that you never think you’ll ever hear.
“You always think, ‘that doesn’t happen to us, that doesn’t happen to us.’ And I remember just sitting there, thinking ‘oh shit, this is actually happening to us’.
“I keep thinking, ‘when am I going to wake up?’ It’s all the cliches you think about… I’m in that now, I know what it feels like. I’m waiting to wake up. My dreams are in reverse. My dreams are dreaming of normal things, and then I wake up and I’m in the nightmare.”
The adored schoolgirl, described by loved ones as “full of life”, “fiercely loyal” and “compassionate”, with a giant smile and a sparkle in her eyes that lights up every room, now faces an unimaginable battle.
As it stands, Maddie is still in ICU at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Randwick, with staff telling her loving parents and big brother that there is a long road ahead. Her much-loved chocolate Labrador, Claude, who she was busy training up to be a circus dog in the backyard after school, is waiting patiently by the door for her to return home.
Earlier this month, the beloved daughter, sister and friend to so many celebrated her 12th birthday while in the hospital. Maddie’s room in the ICU has been transformed into what nurses have affectionately dubbed “the vibes room” – filled with photos and letters from family and friends, balloons left over from her birthday that are still floating around, fairy lights strung from the ceiling, her favourite music on repeat. Maddie’s most-played soundtrack, The Greatest Showman, especially the hit song, A Million Dreams, is being blasted daily from her room.
“Realistically, they can’t tell us (what the future looks like) because she has to hit certain milestones. We don’t really know how long we will be in here. It’s a long journey and it’s obvious that it will be months and months, maybe even years of rehab in front of us, and we’re just determined to get her there and get her home,” Leah admitted.
She said their village – the school community, their close-knit family, and dear friends – have been nothing short of incredible in rallying around the family during the most difficult weeks of their lives.
“We’re really feeling the love and we need everyone’s support to get her home,” she said.
Heartbreakingly, Leah and Jerry are realistic about Maddie hitting her milestones this year. She’s in her final year of primary school and her heartbroken parents know there are big moments their beautiful, smart girl is likely going to miss.
“There are so many milestones in year six. The final photo with her classmates … that’s not going to happen for her, realistically,” Leah said.
“Her friends are constantly asking us when is she going to come back but I just don’t have an answer for them. I’d love to say she will be home for graduation but realistically we just don’t know.”
With Leah and Jerry constantly at Maddie’s bedside, a family friend has set up a GoFundMe to support the family so that they can focus on getting their girl through this.
“Anyone who knows Maddie knows just how full of life she is,” the fundraiser reads. “She is always the one to lighten the mood, make people laugh and bring joy wherever she goes. She has a beautiful ability to brighten every room she enters.
“Maddie is fiercely loyal, compassionate and always up for an adventure. She is a risk taker with a huge passion for her animals and the outdoors, and she brings so much love and energy to the people and animals around her.”
All funds raised via GoFundMe will go towards Maddie’s recovery, ongoing medical and associated costs, helping to give Leah and Jerry’s daughter the best possible chance as she begins her long road ahead.
If there’s one thing Leah says this horror has taught her, it’s “don’t hesitate to call triple 000”.
“Just call them,” she said.
“I was so conscious of wasting resources, thinking ‘there’s someone out there that needs this more than me’. But just call triple-0, that’s what it’s there for.”
Facing an uncertain future for Maddie, Leah said she and her husband just “power up” each day and do what they need to do for their daughter.
“Obviously there are a lot of questions that we have, a lot of thoughts about an uncertain future of what life will look like, but we’re just determined to get her home,” she said.
“Every day she is making a little bit of progress, it’s very small baby steps but we always say to her, ‘we’re on your watch, we’re not on the doctor’s clock’. So however long it takes for you to make the next step, we will wait.”
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