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.

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Three years on...



It’s three years today since the appointment at Great Ormond Street where we were told that Jessica was unlikely to be suitable for surgery and our world fell apart.  In the midst of our devastation, we held on to one thing, the knowledge that God was bigger than it all and we prayed for a miracle.  Three years on and Jessica is here, bringing us so much joy and we thank God every day for blessing us with our beautiful little girl.

 
It has been a busy couple of weeks since our check-up at Oxford.  We have been catching up with Tany and Amy, enjoying trips to the park and afternoons painting pictures of “animals” as well as helping Mummy celebrate her birthday with a day out at Legoland.  Jessica had a lovely time and particularly enjoyed the play area in Duplo Valley.  She enjoyed all the walking around too and didn’t use the buggy at all whilst we were there.  We also had an eventful day out shopping yesterday with Mummy when we got trapped in the lift for 25 minutes (and seemingly unable to make contact with the outside world for the first ten which was quite scary) – fortunately though Jessica didn’t seem too bothered and was quite happy sitting on the floor in the lift with some toys whilst we waited for someone to get us out.


As always, she continues to be very happy and very, very chatty (latest phrase is “that’s better!” which gets used quite a lot!)  We are starting to see a few signs of sibling rivalry starting to emerge now that Sophie is getting more mobile and able to get at more of Jessica’s toys although most of the time they are still very lovely together and Jessica loves to give her baby sister cuddles and kisses (and then sit on her which is less good, but Sophie doesn’t often seem too bothered by this!)





Mummy, Daddy, Grandma and Auntie Marlene are taking part in another fundraising concert for Friends of PICU at church this weekend (Saturday 17th May, 7.30pm at Christ Church, Uxbridge) – more details are available here – please do come along and support us if you are able to.


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