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, 2 April 2012

Getting ready for another step

Jessica has been doing well over the last few days and thankfully her oxygen saturation levels have been fairly reassuring. Her weight gain is still slow but she is at least still gaining weight and is now up to 5380g (11lb 13oz). She is doing really well with her solids – pear puree and mashed avocado seem to be favourites at the moment.

Jessica has been spending time with lots of family members over the past few days – going to cousin Keely’s 16th birthday party last week and having Auntie Maxine come to stay for a couple of days whilst Michael was busy doing sound for Pastiche Musical Theatre’s production of Carousel. We would like to say a huge thank you to Pastiche for choosing Little Hearts Matter as their charity for this show – the proceeds raised from the bucket collection, raffle and programme sales raised £916.78 for the charity which was amazing – thank you so much.

We are all set to go into hospital tomorrow ready for her next operation on Wednesday and will keep you updated over the next few days as to how things go. Please keep Jessica in your thoughts and prayers as she takes another step on her journey.

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