A four-year-old girl from Kettering is fighting for her life after contracting a rare brain disease following a bout of flu. Sienna Dunion was diagnosed with Acute Necrotising Encephalitis (ANE), a severe and potentially fatal disorder that causes rapid neurological deterioration after a viral infection.
Her parents, Gary and Angelina Dunion, first noticed something was wrong when she asked to come home just five minutes after going out to play with her scooter. She had a rising temperature but was still playing with her dolls. However, on 19 November, she became unresponsive and was rushed to A&E, where she was placed in an induced coma.
Doctors initially thought she was dehydrated after testing positive for influenza, but a CT scan revealed white lesions on her brain. An MRI later confirmed ANE. Given the rarity of the disease—only a handful of cases globally—doctors created a tailored treatment plan including plasma exchange to “wash her brain”.
Complications arose when an ultrasound showed large amounts of fluid in her stomach. Sienna underwent surgery to remove 60 per cent of her intestines and has since had two further operations. She now has a stoma bag and will have short bowel syndrome for life.
Mr Dunion said: “The one guarantee that doctors have made is that she will not be the same person when she wakes up and will have to go through extensive rehab.” Sienna is now awake but unable to track her eyes, eat, or move properly. The family has been warned she will need years of intense rehabilitation to learn to walk and talk again.
The family is fundraising to cover the cost of physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, feeding support, and home adaptations. Mr Dunion added: “She was just the most caring and relaxed four-year-old. She’s got this infectious belly laugh and we don’t know if we’ll hear it again.”
