While thousands of families across Australia will gather around the Christmas tree at home this weekend, it will be a different story for Jess and Sam Lines, who will be around their one-year-old son's hospital bed.
The Broken Hill family has spent the past two weeks at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide supporting Ryan.
Sarah Baum, Ryan's aunt, said the uncertainty surrounding her nephew's condition was impacting the family significantly.
"They're all very stressed," she said.
"I'm not sure any of them have slept properly yet."
Ryan was flown from the outback mining city to Adelaide after a group A Streptococcus bacterial infection, or Strep A, developed into septicaemia, a severe infection that affects the blood.
After he was transferred to South Australia Ryan went into cardiac arrest.
According to the family, Ryan's heart stopped for about 10 minutes before he was revived.
Ms Baum said the family was feeling more positive than they had been.
"The reality is we're better than we were when he did go into cardiac arrest, and we did lose him," she said.
"He's making very small improvements every day.
"But in reality, we won't come out of this without him having some form of disability."
'Overwhelmed' by community support
While the sudden illness has left his parents in shock, residents in Broken Hill are uniting to raise money to help pay the bills.
A raffle was started with the goal of raising $500, but it wasn't long before businesses, the local football club and strangers jumped on board.
"So far we've raised just over $10,000. It's just grown and grown," said Anthea Van Kemenade, one of the organisers.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Ms Baum said the response had "overwhelmed" Ryan's parents.
"I can't even put into words how blown away we've been and how thankful we are for all the support," she said.
"I've had people reach out who didn't know me, didn't know my family all they wanted to do what help."
