Will Daddy’s new heart still love me?
PLEA BY SON FOLLOWING TRANSPLANT
MY 10-year-old sent me a text finishing with “THX”.
Seconds later another appeared, to explain: “It means thank you Mummy”.
Honestly, how old does she think I am?
ADD the Dictionary Of Difficult Words to your home schooling library – it’s in all book shops.
DAILY STAR SUNDAY, June 21, 2020
A DAD fought back from a heart attack after his son roused him from a coma.
Carl Ross, 35, fell ill while watching eightyear-old Cade playing football.
With his heart and brain failing, Carl was slipping away until Cade read out a heartfelt letter – which inspired the father of two to fight back.
But he was not out the woods yet, and had to survive a heart transplant.
While thrilled his dad was on the mend, Cade had another agonising concern on his mind – and asked mum Kirsty Stringer if his father’s new heart would still love him.
Kirsty, 34, said: “I broke down then. Carl is our world, we all live for each other.”
The nightmare began last October when Cade was preparing for his first match for a local team.
Carl said: “It was a big deal, so even though I was feeling a bit off I went to the game.
“But halfway through I felt like I could black out and couldn’t breathe.”
At hospital, doctors initially diagnosed pneumonia. But tests revealed that Carl needed a heart bypass, followed later by a transplant.
After having the bypass surgery, Carl was in a coma for a fortnight.
Fiancée Kirsty said: “I was just numb. They even thought his brain had stopped working.”
Then one day, she played him a video message from Cade.
Kirsty, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, explained: “He said, ‘Hi Daddy, it’s Cade. I’m the man of the house now.’
“And the reaction was massive; he was lifting his arms and legs, trying to get the phone. From then on you could tell he was fighting.”
For two months, Carl waited on life support machines for a donor.
Breaking the news that their dad needed a transplant to Cade and his sister Lexi, 13, was hard for Kirsty – but hearing Cade’s response was even tougher.
She said: “Cade asked me if his dad’s new heart would still love him. I sobbed and told him yes, he always would.”
Finally a match was found and on October 16 Carl had a nine-hour operation at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. He has recovered well and will marry Kirsty next May.
Carl said: “I’m just happy to be here with my family. And now football training is back on, I can take Cade and that’s the best feeling.”
Kirsty added: “For Carl to be able to go and watch Cade back at football training is the best Father’s Day present there is.”