We have to pinch ourselves that our Chanel is now five
Parents’ joy at milestone for youngest heart-op baby
Courageous Chanel Murrish poses with her birthday cake and pink balloon in an image her parents thought they might never see.
Chanel is five today and has defied all the odds to be here at all. She made history as the youngest child in the world to have open heart surgery –
MINUTES after being born. Doctors had given her just a five per cent chance of survival.
Mum Fay, 29, says: “We had been told there was little chance of our daughter making it and were twice offered a termination.
“But look at her now – Chanel’s proved over and over again what a little miracle she is. We still have to pinch ourselves that she is here and doing as well as she is. It’s like a dream come true that Chanel is celebrating her fifth birthday.”
The youngster is spending today with family and friends at a kids’ play centre with a special guest appearance from her idol – Disney character Rapunzel.
And she has been looking forward to that, telling the Sunday Mirror: “I’m excited that I will be five. I’m going to have a cake and a princess party with all my friends and play in the ball pit.”
Proud Fay, from Seaham, County Durham, adds: “To see our little girl running around, doing what other five-year-olds do, is amazing. I’ve lost count of how many times we nearly lost her, so to see her so happy and healthy is the greatest gift we could ask for.”
Chanel entered the Guinness Book of Records after her lifesaving surgery moments after birth – and has had 24 operations.
She has survived a cardiac arrest, a stroke that resulted in cerebral palsy and a life-threatening seizure that has left her with epilepsy. Fay was 20 weeks MY STAR First time Fay held Chanel into her pregnancy when she and HGV driver husband, Michael, 32, were told Chanel had hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
It means the left ventricle in her heart is severely underdeveloped and only half of children with the condition reach the age of five.
A further complication emerged before Chanel was born – intact atrial septum was weakening her tiny heart even further.
Doctors asked Fay and Michael whether they wanted a termination. But Fay, who also has two sons – Chase, nine, and Cole, six – said No. The clincher came during a scan on which Chanel seemed to give a thumbs-up.
Fay recalls: “I could feel her kicking and I was sure it was her way of saying ‘I can do this, don’t give up’.” Chanel was born by Caesarean in February 2014 in a
cardiac operating theatre at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle. Surgeons were ready to operate immediately. Stay-at-home mum Fay says: “I didn’t even get chance to hod my little girl before she was whisked away and her chest opened up in an adjoining theatre. "It was touch-and-go and specialists warned us there was a very ligh chance Chanel wouldn’t make it through the surgery. And even if she did she may never leave hospital and would eventued a heart transplant. "Although terrified, I refused to dwell on the negatives and kept telling myself my tiny little fighter was going to make it.” Which is exactly what Chanel did-and she is now the oldest known British survivor with her two conditions. She has endured open heart surgery another three times, surviving a cardiac arrest after the second procedure when she was just seven days old.
Chanel was so heavily sedated that it was only when she came home that it emerged she had suffered a stroke and couldn’t move the left side of her body.
It left Chanel unable to walk until she was two-and-a-half and she still wears a splint on her left leg. She now needs 11 doses of medication daily to prevent heart failure, prevent blood clotting and to manage her epilepsy. She is tube fed through her tummy and has liver and kidney problems due to the lack of oxygen circulating around her body.
And Fay, seen right with a Pride of Britain special recognition award for fundraising to help other sick children, knows Chanel will fall ill again. But she and Michael give her every opportunity to lead as normal a life as possible. She adds: “At some point she will go into heart failure or suffer another cardiac arrest and will need an urgent heart transplant. It could be tomorrow – it could be 10 years. We have no idea. “Before Chanel’s last open-heart surgery in August 2017, she was so weak she could only walk a couple of steps and couldn’t even finish a full sentence without gasping for breath. “Her lips were permanently purple and she spent weeks just lying on the couch with no energy whatsoever. But since the surgery, she is like a different child.
“Chanel started mainstream school last September, and although she only manages mornings, she loves nothing more than playing with her friends and gets up every morning full of beans.
“Chanel has constant one-toone support enabling her to go to school, which is an absolute blessing after everything she has been through.
“We are acutely aware that every day with her is incredibly precious.
“We have no idea what the future holds.
“So as Chanel celebrates her birthday, we count our blessings in awe of her feisty spirit and sheer determination – and look forward to what the future holds.”
During scan I could feel baby kicking and she gave thumbs up as if to say ‘I can do this’ FAY MURRISH ON MAGICAL SIGN FROM HER UNBORN DAUGHTER