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.

Sunday 3 May 2015

Four years into the journey

It is four years today since our journey as a heart family started – four years since the scan which told us about our little girl’s special heart.  What a journey those last four years have been and what a wonderful blessing it is to be here today, watching Jessica grow and become the beautiful, happy girl she is today.




Whilst that first year was quite a rollercoaster ride, these last three years have seen us enjoying a normal family life in between all of Jessica’s various hospital check-ups.  We had one of these earlier this week – Jessica’s routine paediatric appointment and it was good to be told that she seems to be doing well.  Her sats continue to be fairly stable, staying around 80 and she is gaining weight well.  She has a cardiac check-up booked for later this month and we hope that this will also show that things continue to be stable.



We had Jessica’s first parent’s evening at her preschool and were so pleased to be told how well she is doing.  She is happy and sociable, on track with the various learning goals and is advanced for her age with numbers – being very confident with recognising and counting numbers to twenty and beyond.  Whilst we had one morning where she had a little wobble on arriving at preschool and got a bit upset about Mummy leaving, on the whole she is very happy to go and seems to really enjoy it.


We have also been enjoying some time together as a family and had a lovely day out last week at Legoland.  Both Jessica and Sophie enjoyed going on lots of different rides and had a wonderful time.



Four years into the journey – thank you God that we have come this far!