Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘We’re so grateful’
Parents of Ella, 2, thank Gordon and Sarah Brown
TAYSIDE tot Ella McConnachie is alive and well today thanks to research begun as a result of the death of the baby daughter of former prime minister Gordon Brown.
And, in a remarkable twist of fate, two-and-a-half-year-old Ella, who lives in Burrelton near Blairgowrie with her parents Catherine Smith and Brian McConnachie, is the granddaughter of the late Labour leader John Smith.
Today Catherine, 43, John Smith’s daughter, said that it was thanks to the work carried out by the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory that her daughter is alive today.
She said: “What Gordon and Sarah have done is the most extraordinary gift. They’ve given us our daughter.
“We are so grateful to them and to the work of JBRL. We believe that it’s thanks to their research that Ella survived.”
She said when Ella was born by emergency caesarian section at Ninewells Hospital, she weighed 1lb 10oz.
For weeks, she was kept in an incubator fitted with an oxygen level monitor as part of JBRL’s research.
Catherine said: “Prior to the research it was very difficult getting the oxygen levels right — too much or too little could result in the death of a baby.
“Thanks to this research, we were able to get the oxygen levels just right for Ella.”
Catherine, an advocate, explained that 28 weeks into her pregnancy she developed an aggressive form of pre-eclampsia.
Although she felt totally normal, her condition was becoming life-threatening and she needed an emergency section.
After Ella was born, she was rushed to the hospital’s neo-natal unit.
It was 10 days until Catherine was able to finally hold her tiny daughter.
She said: “It was incredible. All that mattered was getting Ella well.”
Six weeks after her birth, Catherine and Brian, a QC who is originally from Dundee, were able to take their little girl home.
Gordon and Sarah Brown lost their 10-day-old daughter Jennifer after she was born at 33 weeks in 2002.
Sarah set up the charity, PiggyBankKids — now called Theirworld — which established the JBRL at Edinburgh University in 2004.