LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Covid survivor meets grandchild for first time
This is the moment an emotional gran, who spent 121 days in hospital battling Covid- 19, finally met her baby granddaughter for the first time.
Annette Smith, 61, was placed in an induced coma the day after her only child Racheal gave birth to little Zoey while both women were in Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Yesterday, the auxiliary nurse, from Erskine, was reunited with her family, including her 90-year-old father, for the first time since January 2.
Racheal, 28, told the Express: “I have willed this day to happen since she was first admitted to hospital.
“There were times when we thought we would never see the day that she would come home so it almost feels surreal.
“When mum saw Zoey, she just said, ‘It’s my baby, she’s so beautiful’.
“When she held her, I just couldn’t keep it together any longer.”
An auxiliary nurse who spent 121 days in hospital after contracting Covid-19 met her granddaughter for the first time yesterday.
Annette Smith was placed in an induced coma at Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) on January 10 just hours after her only child Racheal gave birth.
Zoey, now three months old, was born at the maternity unit just yards from where her granny Annette was deteriorating rapidly.
But, after four long months in hospital, an emotional Annette was reunited with her girls at their Erskine home yesterday afternoon as neighbours and family cheered her joyful return.
Racheal told the Express: “When I think about the first time the doctor said, ‘would you like to say your final goodbyes’, to then talking about it maybe taking between six months and a year until she’d be back home, to now that it’s finally happened, it’s overwhelming.
“I have willed this day to happen since she was first admitted to hospital.”
Annette, 61, was working at the RAH when she came into contact with someone who had the virus over the festive period.
She initially tested negative for Covid-19, but later became unwell with severe stomach problems.
When Racheal and her partner Graham received no response from Annette on the phone, they raced to her Baird Drive home on January 2 to find her dazed, confused and struggling for breath.
“I just kept saying, ‘mum, mum’, but she said nothing, you wouldn’t even have known I was there,” Racheal said. “That’s when I called an ambulance. “As soon as the paramedics arrived, they asked me how far along I was because they thought it was definitely covid.”
Racheal had moved out of the home she shares with her mum the previous week as she was worried she might catch covid days before she was due to give birth.
But her fears were realised and, after spending five days alone in a hospital room with covid, she gave birth to Zoey on January 9 while wearing a face mask and without Graham in the room.
When she phoned her mum to explain she had a new baby granddaughter, a consultant came on the phone to state Annette had become seriously unwell.
“Those days were some of the best and worst of my life,” Racheal said.
“Trying to separate the two of them became incredibly difficult.
“Then my world came crashing down when the doctor told me that my mum wasn’t getting better and to prepare for the worst.
“I completely broke down. “I begged for her to get better.
“I told her I wasn’t ready for her to leave me, I pleaded for her to find the strength within her to fight this with everything she has.
“She hadn’t met her granddaughter, she hadn’t taught me to be a mother yet.
“My heart was shattering into what felt like a million pieces.
“I couldn’t see her, I couldn’t hold her, I couldn’t be with her when she needed me the most.”
Annette eventually came out of the coma on February 10, but had a huge road to recovery ahead of her.
The woman who once ran round the wards at the RAH helping others was learning to walk, talk, stand and eat again.
On February 16, she whispered the words ‘I love you baby’ to an overjoyed Racheal.
The 28- year- old said: “Our roller coaster has had a lot of ups.
“No one is able to describe the feeling you get when you see your parent walking and talking again.
“But, as much as we had a great time and happiness with these precious memories, the distance, the constant struggle to do things that we take for granted, the physical and mental torture we have had to endure is one I never want to repeat or even remember.
“For now, my mum’s success story of beating covid is far from over. However, the next chapter is with me and her granddaughter.
“This is the happiest day of my entire life as I have all of my family back to where they belong, with me at home, at last.”