The saddest goodbye
In their mother’s arms for the only time, twin gives dying sister a hug
SECURE in their mother’s arms for what, sadly, would be their only time together, these twins still gave a touching display of the incredible bond between them.
For as Amy Campbell clutched her premature baby daughters, the stronger one, Charlotte, wrapped an arm around her weaker sister Esme, as if willing her to fight on.
Mrs Campbell knew Esme would not survive and had been determined that the twins, who had been battling for life in incubators for seven weeks, should meet.
She and her husband Conor, who were first- time parents, asked nurses to help her hold both girls at the same time for a poignant photograph. As the twins were laid on their mother’s chest, Charlotte placed her arm around Esme’s shoulders – a precious memory that Mrs Campbell said ‘felt so right’.
Esme died days later, with Mrs Campbell pictured in tears as she held her before her life support was switched off.
The twins had been born 13 weeks premature, each weighing around 2lb. But Esme grew poorly and tests showed she had a devastating amount of fluid on the brain.
Doctors told her parents that if she survived she would never enjoy any quality of life.
The couple, from Leeds, made the agonising decision that she should not suffer needlessly. The emotional photograph of the twins with their mother was taken in August 2016.
Only now has it been released, with Mrs Campbell 38 weeks pregnant with a baby boy, a brother for healthy 22-month-old Charlotte.
Mrs Campbell, 30, a former special needs teacher, recalled yesterday the moment doctors at Leeds General Infirmary broke the news about Esme that she and Conor, a 32-year- old commercial manager, had been dreading.
‘We knew we didn’t want Esme to suffer but how do you decide when to switch off your baby’s life support? It was a massive decision,’ she said. ‘All I did know was that before she died I wanted them [Esme and Charlotte] to meet one another.
‘Conor and I had never been able to hold them both at the same time so the nurses arranged to help us out. The nurses placed them on my chest and Charlotte put her arm around Esme and I thought, “They love each other”.
‘It was probably Charlotte just getting comfortable but it would be beautiful to think she was giving her sister a big cuddle.
‘She is such a caring girl that maybe she was hugging her.
‘That moment of having them both snuggled up in my arms was the best moment of my life.
‘Despite the devastation of what we had just been told, in that moment everything felt so right.’
Esme died in her arms less than three days later. Mrs Campbell said: ‘Charlotte and her baby brother will always know about their sister Esme. We keep reminders of her all around our home to allow it to happen naturally.’
The couple have set up a nonprofit organisation in her memory called Campbellinas – their nickname for the twins – and raised more than £10,000 for the hospital.
‘Devastating, but it felt so right’