Health & Happiness: Small But Mighty! + Made For Each Other
Premmie Charlie faced surgery at just 8 days old
Every scan, every kick, told me my baby was perfect. Until a check-up at 31 weeks... My blood pressure was sky-high, and doctors found protein in my urine.
Me and my hubby Mark, 39, had been so excited. Now that turned to fear. Diagnosed with preeclampsia, I was admitted to Wansbeck General Hospital.
Though I’d no other symptoms, such as swollen hands and feet, or vomiting, I was kept in for monitoring.
Good job, too, because, a few days later I suffered a seizure. Life-threatening for me and the baby, I needed an emergency Caesarean.
So, on 14 January, Charlie was born, weighing only 2lb 6oz. He was moved to Royal Victoria Infirmary’s Special Care Baby Unit, and Mark and I followed the next day. ‘He’s so tiny,’ I whispered, staring at all the tubes coming out of our boy.
The poor mite was in an incubator, being ventilated and tube-fed. And then… ‘Something’s wrong with his stomach,’ Mark noticed, when Charlie was eight days old. It looked swollen. ‘Charlie has necrotising enterocolitis,’ the consultant explained, following tests. It’s a serious condition that causes tissues in the intestine to become inflamed and eventually to die. No-one knew why it’d happened, but Charlie needed emergency surgery. Worse, he might not come through it.
‘We love you so much,’ I sobbed, kissing our boy.
During the four-hour operation, doctors removed 27cm of infected bowel from his tiny body, and fitted Charlie with a stoma bag so they could treat the infection. Though it was a success, over the next few weeks he didn’t gain any weight, or seem to make any progress.
The Sick Children’s Trust set Mark and me up at Crawford House, a homeaway-from-home close by the hospital, so we were never far from our boy.
And, a few months later, doctors decided to reverse Charlie’s stoma.
‘It’s risky as Charlie’s so small, but it’s the only way we’ll know if the treatment’s worked,’ the surgeon told us.
Our amazing little lad pulled through. And, when he was 5 months old, he finally came home.
Almost 3 now, Charlie’s such a happy, healthy, active boy you’d never guess he’d been so poorly. We couldn’t be more proud of him.
Learn more about the Sick Children’s Trust at sickchildrenstrust.org