Ourgirl’s
FOR MOST new mums, the chance to proudly push their baby in a pram is taken for granted.
But Lynne Moore had to wait a whole year for her daughter Calla to be well enough to leave hospital – just for a weekend. Calla, now 18 months, was born with a host of health problems including a rare form of epilepsy.
Lynne is so proud of how much her daughter has achieved – as doctors feared many times they might lose her.
“She’s Super-Calla-fragilistic,” smiles Lynne. “Her name Calla actually means ‘beautiful warrior’. Her name has been really fitting because she is a warrior and she’s fought through so much already and she’s so determined.”
Lynne and husband Ali are filmed taking their daughter outside for the first time on the day before her first birthday in the new series of Scotland’s Superhospital.
The programme takes a behindthe-scenes look at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, meeting the patients and staff.
Monday’s episode features the emotional scene when Lynne and Ali take their daughter in a pram through the hospital doors so she can feel fresh air for the first time. Little Calla finally got to go home with her parents to Aberdeen just two months ago.
“I’m just so grateful to the entire team,” said former physio, Lynne, 36. “Calla is a complete and utter miracle.”
Calla was born with health issues including Ohtahara syndrome – a rare form of epilepsy. At one point, she was having up to 50 seizures a day.
Lynne and husband Ali, 33, an airline pilot, first learned about some of Calla’s health problems at a 20-week scan during her pregnancy.
“Doctors discovered what looked like tumours in Calla’s abdomen and stomach,” said Lynne, who was scanned every couple of weeks to monitor her baby’s progress.
“They went on to find she had a heart defect and also some of her organs were in unusual positions. The worry really started then. It was very difficult. We didn’t know if she would make full term or if her heart would cope in the womb.”
When Lynne’s waters broke at 32 weeks, doctors managed to stop her labour until Calla was eventually born at 35 weeks on October 9, 2015.
“I was given the briefest of holds, a few seconds to welcome her to the world before they had to whisk her away to help her breathing,” she said.
“Her face was quite squished, her nose was in and her little ears – but she was very cute. It was a lovely wee moment as I wasn’t sure I would get to hold her at that stage.”
It was several days before Lynne
could hold her properly and these precious cuddles were so infrequent, they’re etched in Lynne’s memory.
“In her first two months of life, I could only hold her 10 times,” said Lynne.
“If you think how many times a mum picks up a child in the first few weeks. You have to do a different type of bonding when they’re in an incubator.”
She said doctors weren’t sure at first exactly what health concerns Calla was facing. “It was like unravelling a piece of string,” Lynne said. “We knew about her organs being on the wrong side or wrong position. She was born with two left lungs rather than a left and a right.”
Calla’s windpipe was also floppy, making it difficult for her to breathe. But Lynne had hoped she’d soon be able to take her daughter home.
She said: “In the early days, we thought she’d be in hospital maybe two or three weeks and come back for surgeries. But after two weeks came and went, the word ‘home’ was never mentioned again for almost a year.
“At six weeks, she suddenly started having seizures and was having 40-50 a day and it was horrendous to watch in those early days. But we did manage to get it under control with medication.”
Lynne would leave a scarf with her baby one day – and would take the scarf the next day so she could smell her baby as she expressed milk for her.
With Ali often abroad for work, Lynne moved into Ronald McDonald House – which provides accommodation for families of sick kids – to be close to Calla.
“I had to move in there pretty much for a year, it was a bit crazy. I was one of the longest residents,” she said.
Calla has had a number of operations. At three months, she had surgery to widen her upper airway and at five months an op to remove a cyst attached to her stomach and small bowel. She
Calla means ‘beautiful warrior’ and her name has been really fitting MUM LYNNE