Dunedin ICU nurse's brave fight: 'Prayers would be the best thing'

Hayloon (Heylon) Sevilla pictured with his new baby Estella Marie. Photo / Supplied

A husband and wife team devoted to caring for people in ICU have been rocked by a health emergency of their own.

Dunedin ICU nurses Hayloon (Heylon) Sevilla and his wife Teresa, also known as Tessa, are parents to 5-year-old Nio and were expecting baby number two to arrive around September.

That changed when Teresa suffered a brain bleed and her daughter, Estella Marie, was brought into the world at 32 weeks via emergency caesarean.

The community has rallied around the young couple, creating a Givealittle page to support them.

Dozens of comforting messages have been left on the page.

"Your community is walking right beside you," one donor said.

A family spokesperson for the couple said they felt a deep sense of gratitude for the outpouring of aroha in this challenging time.

"[Heylon] feels so overwhelmed reading the messages in the givealittle page especially a couple of them coming from their previous patients," the spokesperson said.

"He is amazed at how much of an impact he and Teresa made to these people in the short span of time they looked after them.

"Estella is doing well, getting bigger and cuter everyday. Nio still keeps on going to school everyday and is getting better at math."

The couple were surrounded by an amazing support network, the spokesperson said.

"At this time, prayers would be the best thing we could give the family while we wait for Teresa to wake up."

According to the page, on August 3 Heylon woke up to the news his wife had collapsed at work and initially thought it was a fainting spell.

"Unfortunately, this was not the case and then the nightmare started," the page reads.

She did not wake up and was admitted to ICU where she needed to have a breathing tube.

A CT scan of her head showed a "massive bleed" and as her brain had swollen, the neurosurgeon deemed it was too risky to operate at this stage, the page reads.

Southern DHB chief nursing and midwifery officer Jane Wilson said they were supporting the two "treasured ICU nurses" during an extremely difficult time.

"ICU staff dedicate themselves to caring for some of the most unwell people in our communities, and now our team members are needing the care of their friends and colleagues," Wilson said.

"I thank all of our ICU and NICU teams for their incredible strength and professionalism at this very challenging time."

The support, kind messages and generous assistance the family had received from across the community was greatly appreciated, she said.

"This includes messages from former patients and whānau who have remembered the care they received from Hayloon and Teresa in their own times of need."