Karlien's heartbreak: The doctor said he couldn't do anything for my daughter

Afrikaans singer Karlien van Jaarsveld was left devastated after doctors informed her that nothing could be done to change her one-year-old daughter's medical condition. 

Karlien's daughter Elah suffers from a condition called portal vein thrombosis, which causes blood clots to form in the portal vein, which transports blood to the liver from the intestines. The blockage causes severe bleeding and hypertension. 

As a result, Elah has been in and out of hospital several times since her birth.

Little Elah was scheduled to undergo surgery to have a shunt inserted into her, however things didn't go according to plan. 

"All we wanted after this massive procedure was for her to finally be healthy. Elah is in theatre at 5.30pm, the expected theatre time is 4 hours. At 8pm the doctor enters the pediatric hall, not where we expect him to be. We ran to meet him, scared, excited.  He says, 'she's fine but I couldn't do anything for her.' It sounds like I haven't heard right? Huh? What does Dr? Say again? 'I couldn't do the shunt.'

A shunt is a hole or device which allows movement of fluids from one part of the body to another. 

Karlien said "a thousand questions" hit her head and heart at once.

"The one which reverberated the loudest was: 'God why?' Is impossible. No! Our baby was cut open, from one side to the other,  just for the doctor to say he couldn't do anything to her. Her veins look quite different from what the radiologist said it looked like."

Karlien said Elah was currently being treated in a children's ICU and is apparently recovering well.

However, when Karlien reflected on the events of the last few days, she said her faith had been tested. 

"I don't think my faith has ever been so tested as in these last few days, to see how things go from bad to worse and still trust that God is still the same as yesterday, still good, still with us, that he hadn't disappeared or hid somewhere.... My heart is in so many pieces."