Joy for baby given 30 minutes to live
CLASPED i n her mother’s arms and brimming with smiles, 15-month-old Brooke Docherty l ooks a picture of health.
It is a sight her mother Kierran Reid feared she might never see after doctors broke the devastating news that her precious newborn had minutes to live after being born with six major heart defects.
Yet after surviving open heart surgery, the infant battled back from infections and serious blood clots to make a full recovery.
Six days after Brooke was born by caesarean weighing 7lb 1oz in October 2014, her lips turned blue and Miss Reid drove her to accident and emergency at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
Doctors told her Brooke was ‘ the sickest baby to come through the doors’ and suggested she prepared to say her goodbyes.
Brooke’s father, Barry Docherty, had gone offshore the previous day and had to be told the heartbreaking news over the phone.
Miss Reid, 23, a part-time administrator at the hospital, said: ‘We had her at home for six days and she seemed fine, like a normal newborn. Then I was told she only had 30 minutes to live and was taken through to say goodbye to her. I was in complete shock.’
Less than half a day later, the baby was airlifted 200 miles to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill, Glasgow, for the risky 12-hour operation. Brooke’s tiny heart, which was the size of a walnut, had to be stopped as surgeons battled to correct the deformities, including closing two large holes and repairing her short aortic arch with a piece of Gore-Tex fabric.
They also had to widen her aorta and fix and widen a deformed valve. The left side of her heart was much smaller than the right and experts considered ‘ rewiring’ it so everything ran from the right side.
A build-up of fluid caused her lungs to collapse more than ten times in three months. Brooke, who was tube-fed for 50 weeks, also suffered multiple blood clots, which could have caused a stroke if left untreated.
Her parents know Brooke will need a second heart operation in the near future, but for now are enjoying every moment with their lively baby at home.
Miss Reid said: ‘She’s meant to be here. She has fought every obstacle in her path and on her first birthday she came off all her medications in time to have birthday cake. She’s such an inspiration and I’m so proud to be her mum.’