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 22 April 2012

Another settled day


It has been another stable day on PICU for Jessica.  She is still on the ventilator but the amount of oxygen she needs has reduced and the secretions on her chest seem to be looser today which is all encouraging.  We had a visit from one of the cardiology consultants this morning to reassure us that they hadn’t forgotten about Jessica (having seen very little of the cardiology team over the past few days), it was just that her heart function was fine and our reasons for remaining on PICU were due to the parainfluenza infection.


She needed a blood transfusion later in the afternoon as her haemoglobin levels were a little on the low  side but otherwise all has remained well and her oxygen saturations are stable.  She has had some wakeful moments but has been more settled and less feisty.

No comments:

Post a Comment