Updated 2.40 p.m.
Little cancer patient Leah Xuereb has not stopped asking for her brother since she woke up from major surgery for rare cancer in a US hospital this morning, her parents said.
"Before the operation she saw other children playing with their brothers and sisters so she asked for Owen, who is in Gozo. She has been asking for him a lot since she woke up," her mother Zhana said, speaking from the bedside at the Texas hospital.
The 10-hour operation ended at 5.30 a.m. today and Leah came around after about 15 minutes.
"When we went next to her she was saying: Mummy, Daddy... When she saw us she cried... she's in pain but she's talking and doing well... We're so glad she's with us," her mother said.
The toddler has also been asking for her brother and her "nanna". She is currently hooked up to a machine since her stomach is temporarily not functioning due to the operation. She will have to spend the next few days in intensive care.
Her parents are with her, taking it in shifts to rest, and telling her stories to keep her distracted from the pain.
Earlier this morning, members of her family said surgeons were happy with the way the operation had proceeded.
“The doctors said everything is fine. They removed some 315 cancerous pieces from around Leah’s stomach. It is such a great relief, one almost forgets what we have been through, thank you for your prayers,” a member of the family said.
President George Abela yesterday expressed his best wishes while prayers were said for her at Ta' Pinu Church by relatives and friends, particularly many people from her home town of Ghajnsielem.
The toddler's family has been through an excruciating 16 months of diagnosis and treatment, strung with moments of sadness and others of optimism.
Leah had been receiving treatment for cancer at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. She was diagnosed with a yolk-sac tumour, a form of stomach cancer that can only be treated at Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas. No other hospital can provide the combination of localised chemotherapy and surgery that she needs.
The story of Leah has touched the hearts of thousands. She was healthy until she turned two and despite the high doses of chemotherapy and stem cell transplant, her disease progressed very fast.
But her Gozitan parents refused to give up and after applying for sponsorship from the Maltese Government, they decided to take matters into their own hands and start collecting funds for the expensive treatment.
The day her story was published in The Times, the Government came through with its reply to the application: it had decided to sponsor the €245,000 treatment.