Our surviving twin, Isabel, is finally home after five long months in five different hospitals.  We have set up this page to raise money to support and thank the amazingly dedicated, talented and hard-working team of people on the Neonatal Unit at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, without whom, Isabel would not be here today. 

 Isabel's Story:

 Our gorgeous, identical twin girls, Chloe & Isabel, were born 3 months early on the 11th of December, at the Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury, weighing just 1lb 15oz and 1lb 12oz respectively.

The fantastic team in the Neonatal Unit managed to stabilise them and get them safely transferred out to Intensive Care units in Medway & Ashford.  Sadly, Chloe only lived for 12 days but her little sister Isabel made steady progress and by the 12th of January she was well enough to move back to the high dependency unit at Tunbridge Wells, where she stayed for over 90 nights.

Isabel made it home for 6 nights at the end of March but had to be rushed back in to A&E on the 7th night with heart failure.  She was ventilated and stabilised at Pembury before being transferred to Intensive Care at St. George's, and then on to the Evelina Children's Hospital to the Cardiac ward.  Isabel remained stable throughout the extensive testing needed to establish the nature and cause of her condition and gradually rebuilt her strength.  After nearly 3 weeks, she was discharged back to Tunbridge Wells and spent 2 further weeks on the paediatric ward before finally being allowed home again on the 9th of May. 

We have so far raised over £5,000 for the Oliver Fisher Unit at Medway, who cared for Chloe and Isabel, and we would also like to show our appreciation for the fundamental part that the team at Tunbridge Wells have played in both our girls lives.

The cost of caring for a baby in one of these units is somewhere in the region of £3,500 per day, and much of the equipment can only be funded through generous charitable donations, so please please give anything you can possibly spare to help them to save and look after many more babies.

 

Words can not begin to describe how eternally grateful we are to the hundreds of staff who have been involved in caring for both of our little miracles!  The NHS is a truly amazing institution and needs all the help it can get.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story.

 

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