Brooke, born 2013

On my 20 week scan I was so excited for it and to see what the sex of my baby was! However, I found out more than what I went for. The sonographer was looking at the heart and then paused, left the room and came back and said that they had found a small VSD and referred me to the Evelina Children's Hospital, London, UK.

 

Three days later and a two hour trip turned out to be the hardest one I have ever taken; my little girl had been diagnosed with a large VSD and COA which meant open heart surgery at some time. I had follow up appointments every month and nothing else had appeared.

 

I gave birth to my beautiful daughter on October 22, 2013 who then got taken straight away from me and put into intensive care and couldn't see for 2 hours. After a week there had been no signs of this COA appearing, which was fantastic! Even though the VSD was there and needed to be operated on it was nothing major.

 

When she was one week old I was allowed to bring her home and had a checkup 8 days later. Feeling positive on the way up my dreams got shattered when they said she needed the operation ASAP or we would be in for a dreadful Christmas. So on the November 16th at just 3 weeks old she got admitted and had surgery on the 18th and surgery begun at 8:30am. I finally got the phone call at 3:30 to say she had done it, the COA and been cut and they then found 2 VSDs that no scan had picked up! Four months on and my baby is getting stronger each day. She is my fighter!

 

Story by Brooke’s mom, Kayleigh - England