Mum Becca recently wrote to the PICU team at Leeds Children’s Hospital, to let them know how her daughter Hope was doing and to thank staff at Leeds Congenital Heart Unit for saving her little girl’s life.
Becca has kindly agreed to to let us share Hope’s story…
My daughter Hope was transferred from Sheffield Children’s Hospital following complications during an operation. She was bleeding from her Aorta artery.
Hope on life-support at Leeds after surgery, age 5 months
Surgeons at Sheffield feared that Hope wouldn’t survive the transfer to Leeds. She did but when she got to Leeds her heart stopped. The surgeons and team at Leeds gave Hope CPR while she was on the heart lung machine.
The surgeons at Leeds fixed her aorta artery and saved Hope’s life. Hope was under anaesthetic for 16 hours in total and she was in a bad way when she came out, but her tiny heart was beating. Hope had gone a long time (around 45 minutes) without oxygen supply to her brain.
While in Leeds her brain started to swell and she started having seizures. An MRI showed bad brain damage and doctors feared for hopes future. Hope was transferred back to Sheffield when she was stable cardiac wise, still on her life support.
I never really got to thank anyone at Leeds for saving Hope’s life. It was a very unreal time for me and my partner and I believe we spent two weeks in Leeds just in complete shock.
Our once happy five month old little girl was now on a machine and we didn’t know if we would ever see her with her eyes open again. However they did and they were just as bright and as beautiful as they was before she went to sleep.
I would like to thank all the nurses on PICU at Leeds and the wonderful surgeon and her team that saved my baby. I would also like to give you an update on Hope.
Hope has suffered major brain damage, she has got cerebral palsy, epilepsy and global development delay. She had a recent diagnosis of West Syndrome.
Hope has just celebrated her first birthday
But she is an amazing little girl. She has just started weight baring in her stander, she loves her food and is feeding by herself. She just rolled over a few weeks ago and we had her first birthday. She also started with the mmmmm’s now so I feel like she’s going to say mummy soon!
She is so happy and laughs all the time. Her future is still unknown as we have new diagnosis regularly but we know she will be happy and will achieve in her own way.
We’re at home now as a family with Hope older sisters and hand on my heart I believe that is because of all the staff and surgeons at the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit!
Thank you for saving my child. For giving her a chance at life and a chance to fight anything that is to come. All our love, Hope and her forever grateful family.
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Every child diagnosed with a heart defect in Yorkshire is supported by Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.
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