All charged up, the girl given a battery-sized pacemaker at just 7 days old
SHE was just seven days old when she had a pacemaker the size of a AAA battery fitted –and now 19 months later little Esmé Byrne is thriving.
Doctors had to put the tiny device into her stomach instead of her collarbone after she weighed in at just 5lb 2oz, and she is one of the youngest and smallest babies to be fitted with a pacemaker.
They had offered mum Rae Dawson a termination when they discovered Esmé’s heart condition during a routine pregnancy scan. Now she’s coming on in leaps and bounds and is going to be a flower girl with her sister, Amelia, two, at her parents’ wedding next year.
Esmé was diagnosed with Complete Heart Block at 20 weeks in the womb. While blood pumps into the heart correctly, it only pumps out at half the rate, causing the heart rate to drop dangerously.
Miss Dawson’s own body was attacking her unborn baby’s heart. Autoimmune conditions – including Lupus – that Miss Dawson had previously had were responsible.
Recalling when they learned of Esmé’s condition, Miss Dawson, 28, said: ‘The sonographer ran the scanner over my stomach and then he went quiet and kept looking at the screen. He asked me to move around a little to make the baby move and then he said her heart rate was very low. He came back with another doctor who confirmed that she had a low heart rate.
‘They sent us to another local hospital which confirmed she had this condition. It was devastating. They offered us a termination as they said she may not survive, but we were determined to give her every chance we could.’
Miss Dawson was referred to a cardiologist for weekly scans. She said: ‘I was petrified going in for each scan, as I didn’t know what they were going to find. Each time her heart beat was three times slower than it should be.’
Esmé was delivered in September 2022, and left hospital a week after having the pacemaker fitted. The battery will have to be replaced in a few years time when she is four or five.