Forrest beats all the odds in her long fight to live
BABY Forrest Jean Coburn Gardiner was born at 26 weeks, weighing just 1lb 5oz, two days before lockdown in 2020.
She was given only a 40% chance of survival, but this is her remarkable tale at a year-and-a-half old.
Forrest was born without toenails or fingernails, her eyes were still fused together. Her skin paper thin and translucent, she was kept in a ‘plastic bag’.
Even now at 18 months old Forrest is still wearing mostly “aged 3-6 months” clothing, and people who know her call her Thumbelina.
Forrest’s mother, Abbey Coburn, 23, describes Forrest as a “funny and very cheeky little girl”, but this little girl has defied the doctors’ odds of survival.
Abbey had to deliver baby Forrest at 26 weeks as she was alerted to her preeclampsia condition at her 23-week anti-natal appointment at the beginning of March 2020.
Abbey, who lives in Porth, Rhondda, was due to give birth in Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr; however, consultants sent her to Singleton Hospital in Swansea as it has better facilities to support premature babies.
The day after her admission to Singleton, Abbey became dizzy and began having severe headaches which were causing nose bleeds.
She had started showing signs of eclampsia, so she was rushed to theatre for an emergency C-section.
“Before the C-section, doctors said that there was a 60% chance she wouldn’t survive. I was preparing for her funeral before she was born.
“I woke up not knowing if she had survived. I was so out of it, I didn’t get to see her until she was 16 hours old as I was so ill.
“The surgeon said ‘We just saved your life, if we didn’t deliver the baby at that moment you would have died.’”
Forrest was born 26 weeks premature so was kept in what Abbey described as a plastic bag to protect her see-through skin, which is designed to replicate the womb.
Forrest spent 118 days in three different hospitals, had multiple lifethreatening conditions and experienced more in her 18 months than most people will likely experience in their whole lifetime.
Forrest’s dad Keri Gardiner was not allowed to meet Forrest properly until she was five months old due to Covid restrictions.
Abbey said it was so hard dealing with everything alone without her partner by her side, but said she had a great support system around her with the other mothers in the neonatal unit who were all able to help each other.
Throughout Forrest’s stay in hospital she had numerous life-threatening conditions, including a hole in the heart.
Abbey said: “When Forrest had surgery last May for a hole in her heart they discovered she has a rare heart disease. As Forrest gets older she will likely need a stent in her heart, but we’ll face that when we come to it.”
Abbey and Keri were told she may never walk due to diuretics she had been on for over a year. These are usually only prescribed in a 10-day course and not given to children, with the likely side effect of long-term use being cerebral palsy.
However, Forrest has defied the odds yet again by recently taking her first steps.
Abbey said: “It’s something we never thought would happen. We had prepared ourselves for her to never walk. Luckily she isn’t showing any signs of cerebral palsy at the moment.
“Her quality of life is set to be long, happy and healthy, we’re going on holidays soon and we never thought she would be able to fly with her heart.”
With cold and flu season fast approaching, this time of year is particularly difficult for premature babies with life-long illnesses.
“Last year between October to March Forrest was in and out of hospital two to three times a month, she’s had pneumonia three times and is only a year-and-a-half old,” said mumof-three Abbey.
“This time of year is awful for her, I need to wrap her up in bubble wrap and cotton wool.”
Forrest’s time in hospital inspired Abbey to study neonatal nursing, and to start a TikTok account sharing Forrest’s journey and to raise awareness about premature babies.