How shock of being plunged into ice-cold water saved Micah’s life
SIMPLY the thought of being plunged head-first into icy water would make most people shudder.
But for Micah Smithers it was the act that saved his life – at only two weeks old.
The baby has a rare condition which means his heart can race at up to 300 beats per minute.
And to shock the organ back into a normal rhythm, doctors dunked him in the ice-cold water in a move that saved him.
Now, following another lifethreatening incident barely a week after the first, seven-month-old Micah is thriving.
His mother Ali, 32, said: ‘It was a trauma for him to go through but he’s made a remarkable recovery.’
Two weeks after Micah’s birth last July, he went off his feeds, was sick and his skin turned pale.
Mrs Smithers took him to their GP, who sent him to accident and emergency, where machines showed the baby’s heart rate was dangerously fast. Mrs Smithers, of Glasgow, said: ‘The monitor showed 300 beats a minute. They took him into resuscitation and put him head-first into icy water.
‘It sounds terrible but it’s the standard treatment. It shocks the heart into a normal rhythm.’
Tests confirmed Micah has supraventricular tachycardia, which in babies is an abnormal heart rate over 180bpm. It happens when there is a problem with the heart’s electrical system, which controls its rhythm.
Just a week after the first incident Micah’s heart was racing out of control once more and his mother, a nurse, took him straight to A&E.
Tests were carried out but after two hours Micah’s heart stopped and doctors had to resuscitate him before he was placed on a ventilator and given medication.
While medics battled to save Micah, his parents were advised to call family and friends to the hospital because it was not known if he would survive.
His condition worsened and he was linked to an ECMO [extracorporeal membrane oxygenation] machine which oxygenates the blood from outside the body, giving his organs time to recover.
But after three days Micah was taken off the life support and was back home following 11 days in hospital.
To thank the medical staff, Mrs Smithers and her husband Sam will run 10km at the Great Scottish Run in September in aid of Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, where she works.
She said: ‘Without the hospital and the amazing staff, we wouldn’t have our baby boy.’