We want to help unit that gave us our Nel

THE parents of a baby born weighing just 1lb 1oz are fundraising for the hospital unit that saved her life.

Nel Hogarth was delivered three months early in October after mum Kirsty suffered complications in her pregnancy.

Now aged 10 months, Nel is thriving and grateful Kirsty, 30, and husband Greig, 25, are organising a charity night next month for Simpsons Special Care Unit in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Kirsty said: “Without the skills, support and dedication of all those who worked with our little girl and touched her life, we would be sharing a very different story today.

“One of our aims is to raise enough money to purchase much-needed equipment that is hugely beneficial to our special care babies but is not funded by the NHS.”

Kirsty started bleeding heavily on October 23 last year at just 26 weeks pregnant.

Paramedics rushed to the couple’s home in Edinburgh’s Longstone.

They needed to get Kirsty to hospital but were told the Royal Infirmary’s neonatal unit was full and the nearest available one was Dundee. Faced with a life-and-death dilemma for Kirsty and her baby, paramedics Stephen Foster and Dave McEwan knew the Edinburgh unit was the only option.

Distraught Kirsty, 30, heard them tell the operator: “We are bringing her in now. You will have to find a space.”

When Nel was born, she was whisked off for treatment and it was more than three hours before the couple got to see her.

Kirsty said: “I could have held her in the palm of my hand.

“I really doubted that she would survive.

“If it had not been for the paramedics, Nel would not have made it.

“For the first 10 days, they were prepping us to lose her. She was very, very fragile. We were told if she survives, it will be a rollercoaster for a long time.”

Over the next three months, Nel battled two infections but continued to improve.

She was finally allowed home in January – six days before her due date.

Nel’s progress since then has been remarkable. Kirsty said: