PARENTS’ JOY OVER
THE Duchess of Cambridge chuckled as impish Evalina Cox grabbed her attention.
They shared a loving cuddle... then Evie interrupted the royal visitor. And interrupted her again... and again... and again.
Mum- of- three Kate, who was trying to chat to other patients at a children’s hospital, thought it was hilarious and showered the delightful tot with attention.
Each smile and each hug from Kate meant the world to Evie – and to her parents, Jo and Justin.
They will never forget the day their brave daughter “died” on an operating table for 77 minutes.
Her recovery would be long and arduous. And the meeting with Kate was a reward for Evie’s courage and straightforward refusal to give up.
Fitting, then that her parents named her Evalina – as a thank-you to Evelina London Children’s Hospital for saving her.
Just weeks before meeting Kate, Evie had undergone yet more surgery – a major heart operation.
It was the culmination of a traumatic journey that started when a 20-week scan showed a problem.
Evie, now two, had a rare combination of life- threatening heart defects. But the Evelina’s marvellous team would save her. Thrilled Jo, 41,
Our Evie kept interrupting the Duchess... Kate found it so funny... she was really good with her
MUM JO ON TOT’S ROYAL ENCOUNTER
told the Sunday Mirror: “Calling her Evalina was our way of giving thanks for everything their amazing doctors and nurses had done for us.
“We had chosen the name Evie for if we had a girl, but after receiving such incredible care from the staff at Evelina we decided we wanted to name her after the hospital.
“It was our way of giving thanks for everything their amazing doctors and nurses had done for us.
“We know she wouldn’t be here without them. We added our own stamp by changing the spelling slightly and we call her Evie for short. But calling her Evalina is our special tribute to the hospital.”
The mum recalled the grim day Evie underwent her first life-saving operation, followed by open heart surgery at just six weeks old.
Evie technically “died” for 77 minutes but, miraculously, was revived.
In the difficult weeks that followed she suffered a stroke, seizures and a collapsed lung.
But the biggest operation came last November when, aged 19 months, two surgeons carried out a procedure they had performed only 10 times before – fixing a defect known as transposition of the great arteries ( TGA). The condition, which affects 150 babies in the UK every year, meant Evie’s two main blood vessels, the pulmonary artery and the aorta, were the wrong way round.
Open- heart surgery to fix the defect is challenging enough, but was made even more difficult because Evie was also born with one coronary artery instead of two.
ENERGETIC
The operation was a success. And battling Evie recovered so quickly that she was discharged from the Evelina Hospital in just six days.
Now the energetic toddler has been given a clean bill of health and won’t need another op until she is a teenager. Jo, a hypnobirthing instructor from Margate, Kent, added: “Evie is incredible. She literally runs rings around all the other kids now.
“It was like for the first 19 months of her life she was doing altitude training, surviving on only 80 per cent oxygen, and now she’s come out fitter and healthier than anyone else.
“She doesn’t stop. She was playing with her cousins the other day and they said they couldn’t keep up with her – she had tired them out.
“She is just so full of life and fun to be around.”
Evie’s love of cuddles was what grabbed the Duchess of Cambridge’s