MUM WILL RETRACE THE 110 MILES TRAVELLED BY
heart. Katy said: “For the first 30 hours of his life, there was nothing to suggest Alex was anything but a healthy baby.
“The maternity unit at the BGH was very quiet at the time, so we were the only ones on the postnatal ward and spent a lovely day-and-a-half getting to know one another.
“My husband Richard brought Alex’s sister Robyn in to meet her brother and I couldn’t wait to bring him home to meet family and friends. I look back now and I’m so grateful we had that time together.”
As Katy was packing her hospital bag to take Alex home, a routine check of his heart revealed a murmur.
She said: “The midwife explained he needed to have further tests but didn’t seem overly worried. She took him round to the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU)while I finished getting ready.
“Richard arrived with the car seat and we were just about to walk round to the SCBU when a paediatric consultant came to speak with us. I could tell from her face something was terribly wrong – she could barely look us in the eye.”
Scans had revealed that Alex’s heart had failed to develop properly in the womb. Katy said: “Very simply, the
plumbing for his heart was completely wrong and it was a miracle he hadn’t died already.
“I could barely comprehend what the doctor was saying. Just an hour before, I’d been a new mum, getting ready to take my son home, and now I was being told my baby was seriously ill and could die at any moment. He looked absolutely perfect so it was very hard to take in.”
Katy and Alex were immediately rushed to Glasgow by neonatal ambulance, where cardiology experts were waiting for them, while Richard, 36, arranged for family to take care of Robyn before he joined them.
Katy added: “The journey was a blur, I