Our beautiful daughter Jessica was born in September 2011 with a severe heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. This was diagnosed at her 20 week scan and we were initially told that she was unlikely to be suitable for surgery. However, a pioneering in-utero operation at 28 weeks to enlarge a hole in her atrial septum was carried out and she was able to make it to term and get through her first open-heart surgery at just eight hours old. Jessica underwent five more surgeries during her life. Her final surgery - the Fontan procedure - took place in December 2017. She initially made a good recovery but sadly passed away suddenly on 14th April 2018 at the age of 6. This is the story of a little girl whose half a heart overflowed with love. She was, and will forever be, our little miracle and brought joy to all who knew her.

Monday 16 April 2012

Battling the bugs

Last night’s sedative seemed to work quite well and Jessica managed to have a good night’s sleep. Her blood results in the morning showed that her CRP level and white blood cell count were raised from the previous day, indicating infection, and the team were concerned about her getting a secondary bacterial infection on top of the parainfluenza. Her wound was also looking a little red around the stitches and so she has been put on gentamicin and vancomycin to try and nip any possible infection in the bud.

Jessica had a few more moments of being interested in her toys, what was going on around her and pulling Daddy’s nose although was a bit overtired during the day and not really wanting to sleep very much, although she did settle quite well by bedtime. She also seemed to be working hard with her breathing and felt quite warm although her temperature was normal. She had another chest X-ray in the morning and all looked fine on this which was quite reassuring. Her oxygen saturation levels have also been a little better today.

She had a visit from Nanny, Auntie Loraynne and Auntie Maxine in the afternoon and then later in the day, Dr Archer and Dr Manning from Oxford also popped in to say hello as they had their big team meeting in Southampton.

2 comments:

  1. If nose-pulling works, you can pull my nose any day. Come on, Jessica - you're doing so well!

    Neil and Samdra xx

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