Family back heart charity campaign
with the life-threatening condition tetralogy of Fallot while in the womb. Doctors told his parents most ininfants with the condition condi suffered no serious serio health issues b eefor e ne e d i ng surgery su to repair the defects at about six months old. Woody, W conceived through thro IVF, was born by CaCaesarean section after HHelen went into labour two weeks early. But he fell seriously ill at two months. His parents took him to the Royal Hospital for Sick Chi ldren in Edinburgh, where he suffered what they later learned was a cyanotic spell.
Helen said: “An alarm went off, showing his oxygen level had dropped. He was unresponsive. All these doctors got to work on him. Thankfully, he did come around but it was utterly terrifying.”
Woody was transferred to the paediatric cardiology unit at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, where he had stent surgery to increase the flow of blood into his heart. When he fell ill again just a month later, he needed more surgery to widen the stent.
And at six months old, he had open heart surgery to attempt to repair all the faults with his heart.
Six months on, he continues to be monitored by medics but his family say he is a happy, healthy boy.
Helen and web developer Stewart, 40, are supporting the British Heart Foundation’s Love Notes campaign.
In the run-up to Valentine’s Day, the charity is encouraging people to buy a Love Note from its shops and write a message on it to a loved one, which will then be displayed in the store window until February 15.
Money raised from the campaign will help fund research for the 685,000 people in Scotland with heart and circulatory disease.
James Cant, of BHF Scotland, said: “Having the support of families like Woody’s is so important to us. He’s an inspirational little boy.”