A four-year-old girl is fighting for her life after she contracted a rare brain condition when she caught the flu - she will now spend Christmas in hospital.

Sienna Dunion told her parents that she started feel colder that usual then had a temperature and kept her off school for two days thinking she had caught a cold from school. The little girl took a nap on the sofa at 4pm, on November 18, but her worried parents rushed her to A&E after the four-year-old slept through the night and didn't wake up or respond the next morning. Sienna's heartbroken dad Gary Dunion, from Corby in North Northamptonshire, revealed how Sienna catching the flu led to the young girl being diagnosed with a highly rare brain condition.

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Sienna was rushed to A&E in Kettering and doctors quickly put her on a drip, saying she was dehydrated, but Gary said: "At this point, she still wasn't really responding, kind of eyes still rolling, didn't really know what was going on."

Doctors then took the four-year-old in for a CT scan where they noticed a few anomalies. Gary revealed Sienna later woke up, adding: "She woke up she suddenly woke up but both of her eyes were inverted and I can only describe it as seeing her as a six month old."

After doctors realising the severity of Sienna's case, she was transferred to Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, after she had been put into an induced coma - to protect her brain.

Gary, speaking to The Mirror, said doctors revealed a devastating diagnosis after they took Sienna in for a MRI scan. Sienna had a rare and severe brain condition called Acute Necrotising Encephalitis (ANE). This condition is not caused by the flu but it can be trigged by it or Covid-19. The family has set up a Gofundme pageto help raise money for Sienna's recovery.

The dad revealed how unexpected the shocking diagnosis was, adding that Sienna had been a "really healthy girl". Gary said: "She started school in September and absolutely thriving in school. She was doing extremely well. She just started to write her name about five, six weeks ago as well. But there was just no underlying issues with her health issues."

Sienna also suffered from a leak in her intestines and had to undergo emergency surgery, which removed 60% of her intestines and saved her life. Gary said: "She will now, I think for life, have short bowel syndrome. So she may have issues with nutrition and eating moving forwards."

The heartbroken dad revealed Sienna's health battle will unfortunately keep her in hospital over Christmas and has forced her to miss out on fun festive activities, such as her school Christmas dance show and a visit to UK Lapland.

Gary shared how he, his wife Angelina and their seven-year-old daughter Adriana has coped through Sienna's lifechanging health battle. The recruitment boss said he and his wife have tried to keep their oldest daughter distracted from the situation but added that Christmas this year will be difficult.

Gary said: "We don't think she's going to be home for Christmas, but that's fine because whenever she comes home, we can have a Christmas in July or whatever, maybe. Yeah, I think for us, it's been managing that personal side as well.

"Her school have been phenomenal. They've kept her really distracted. They have started some well-being sessions for her. She's seen the therapy dog today, which she's absolutely buzzing about."

The family have been told Sienna could stay in hospital for the next three months and possibly even longer while she goes through rehabilitation and treatment. He said: "It's going to be a long journey but we are we are going to be here for the foreseeable future and we're an hour and a half away from home."

Gary said Sienna did not get the annual flu jab and he warned other parents to make sure their kids are vaccinated, if they can be. The dad said: "The big takeaway from it is that, and again this is all going through some some case studies that I've been looking at, is to vaccinate for the flu because I think there's a lot of a lot reputation with people with vaccinations, I think, particularly since COVID.

"There's just no rhyme or reason why it happens. I think if you can just protect your child with a vaccination, my God, I'd think, yeah, I wish would have done it, but, we just didn't. I mean, this is so rare."