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.

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Awaiting another trip to theatre

Jessica had a fairly good night and thankfully so far her temperature has been normal which is a good sign in view of the infection in her wound. Mr Haw, the surgeon, came to see her this morning and decided that she needed to go to theatre to have a vac pump put into her wound to help keep the pus drained out of the wound and this was originally planned to take place later in the afternoon. However, due to an emergency case in theatre, Jessica was unable to go to theatre today and so hopefully this will be done tomorrow. In the meantime, the team are keeping a close eye on her wound and she is on antibiotics to treat the infection.

We have also moved beds to the other side of the unit to the ‘infections’ side – we were in a corner bed away from the other beds to avoid transmitting paraflu to the children and babies coming out of surgery but this has been on the ‘clean’ side of PICU and as the unit is getting busy, this bed was needed and so we were on the move again! We were concerned at first about any potential risk of Jessica getting yet another infection but have been reassured that the other child near her also has paraflu so this shouldn’t be a problem.

The antibiotics that Jessica is on have also resulted in her having a very nasty-looking nappy rash which has turned out to be thrush and so she is now also on nystatin drops and has canestan cream to treat that – poor little love! She has also had several attempts to have cannulas put in today as she is so wriggly that the ones she has don’t seem to last very long – not very helpful when on IV antibiotics!

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2 comments:

  1. Michelle Sanders19 April 2012 at 14:20

    Hi Louise. I read your blogs as Kerrie posts them, and at 36wks pregnant now myself, cannot do so without tears. You are doing amazingly well in such testing circumstances, and I have every faith that your energy and positivity is helping Jessica to heal. Sending you all love and wishing every day for Jessica's swift recovery. Stay strong little one, and know that you already touch the lives of family you've yet to meet :) Michelle, Frazer & bump Xx

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  2. Louise19 April 2012 at 23:02

    Thank you so much Michelle - she is a little fighter and hopefully things are starting to move in the right direction now! I hope all goes well with the rest of your pregnancy - enjoy those last few weeks and those first few days when your little one arrives - becoming a mummy is just magical and I wish you all the very best xxx

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