Rosy glow from baby back in the pink
BORN with only one kidney and deadly potassium levels consuming her body, nine-week-old Amy Robertson seemed certain to die.
As the tiny baby fought renal failure, tests showed she had ten times the healthy level of the mineral – and major surgery was her only hope of survival.
But despite doctors fearing the worst, eight months on Amy looks a picture of health.
Her father, Darren Robertson from Kirkcaldy, Fife, said: ‘They basically said it was a miracle she was still alive.
‘Her potassium levels were so high, they thought it was a faulty reading.
‘They thought it was a fault with the equipment because her levels should have been around the 20 mark. Anything under 40 is OK but Amy’s was way up at 350-odd.’
Amy spent the next 18 hours hooked up to a ventilator and had to be taken from Kirkcaldy to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow for an operation to save her only kidney.
The family’s nightmare began when Amy’s mother, Claire Martin, 25, took her daughter to hospital thinking she was dehydrated because she was refusing milk.
But after three days on the wards, a routine blood test to check her kidney function highlighted fatal levels of potassium.
On arrival in Glasgow, Amy was placed in a heated incubator and spent the night clinging to life before surgery the next morning.
Surgeons created a stoma – a false opening in the abdomen for fluids to escape – during a six-hour operation. Amy also needed a blood transfusion after her body stopped producing the necessary levels of blood during surgery to survive.
Now, as she learns to crawl and plays with big brother Aidan, she is like any other baby.
Miss Martin said: ‘She’s really active. To look at her you wouldn’t think there was a thing wrong.’
Ten-month-old Amy had five-hour corrective surgery to reverse the stoma in Edinburgh in May. She still needs a final operation on her bladder in November but there are no concerns about her leading a normal life with one kidney.
Mr Robertson, a catering manager, said: ‘What they have said is that one working kidney turns into a super kidney. As she grows, it grows and learns to function as two.’
To thank the staff who saved his daughter, Mr Robertson, 23, and two friends, under the banner of Amy’s Army, have completed the toughest obstacle course in Scotland. Their efforts at the Spartan Beast Race have raised more than £5,000 for Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.
‘Without the hospital Amy wouldn’t be with us,’ he said. ‘They saved her life.’