Story
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">My baby boy's open heart surgery</span></strong></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">Firstly, thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving fundraising page, hopefully you'll see this as a worthwhile cause like I do, and donate what you can.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">This is about my baby boy Frankie, he was born 3 weeks early on 2nd November 2010 by emergency C-Section, but still a healthy 5lb 4oz baby. A boy was the best news I could have got, adding to my 3 year old daughter Paige, I couldn’t have been any prouder.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">It was during Frankie's routine six week check up that we found out that he may have a heart murmur and we would need to see a local paediatrician to get this confirmed. At the appointment we were told it could be a hole in his heart that was causing the mumur, but we were reassured that it was more than likely to be an "innocent hole", one that is common in small babies and will close by the time he is 3 or 4. To get confirmation of what was causing the murmur we visited Evelina Childrens hospital a few months later.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">On July 29th 2011 after all the checks had been made we were told the devastating news that Frankie had Congenital Heart Disease called "Tetrology of Fallot" and would require Open Heart Surgery as soon as possible. Obviously at this point my partner and I were distraught and struggled to hold it together as the enormity of the situation sank in. Terology of Fallot (TOF), is a rare complex heart defect that occurs in about 5 out of every 10,000 babies.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Please take a minute to look at </span><a href="http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/tof/"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #606420;">http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/tof/</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> to understand what each one is.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">Tetrology of Fallot, if left untreated doesn't make good reading for a any sort of future, so surgery was a must, but any surgery with a 3 in 100 mortality rate is a very scary thought. We left hospital and got in the car and that was the longest and most emotional drive of my life, I couldn’t stop looking in the mirror at Frankie sitting there all happy in the back.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">After several days of thinking "why us", "what have we done wrong", we had finally got our heads around the fact that our son had to have open heart surgery. Thankfully he didn't suffer from any of the syndromes or defects that can be associated with TOF. Surgery was on the 5th September after being brought forward a few days as Frankie started to have what doctors called "spells" at home and needed surgery asap. I can honestly say the images of handing our baby boy over to the anaesthetist and then watching him go to sleep will never leave me, and definitely the time it all hit home for me. Nearly 6 hours later and after successful surgery, he was taken to intensive care. As you can imagine walking in and seeing your baby surrounded by machines with god knows how many tubes coming out of his body to keep him going, wasn’t a pleasant sight (see photos) but it was a massive relief to see that he came through the surgery OK. After suffering a couple of setbacks (heart rate soaring to 215bpm, bucket of ice water literally thrown over him to shock his heart back to the correct rhythm while he was asleep etc) and being taken up and down from intensive care, his heart finally started accepting what had happened to it (with the help of several different drugs). </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">The following ten days there were full of ups and downs but most importantly we saw improvement each day. Eventually, we were given the news we could go home, the hospital had been our home for the past 3 weeks and we had got to know so many of the nurses, but I couldn't wait to get home, Frankie was doing well now and we could finally get back to some sort of normality.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">ECHO is a fantastic charity that supports children with Congenital Heart Disease who are treated at the Evelina Children's Hospital and their parents/carers, and they supported us through all the ups and downs we went through, they provide information, friendship and support at times when parents feel alone and desperate, or when they need guidance or advice. They also support the children themselves as they grow into their teenage years and beyond, to help them take the first steps towards independence in dealing with their heart condition. They provide equipment and facilities that make the cardiac ward in the Evelina a place that parents and the children can feel comfortable during this very trumatic time and allow the doctors and nurses to give the highest standard of service possible.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">Donating through Justgiving is simple, fast and totally secure, Your details will never be sold on and you will never receive unwanted e-mails, once you donate your money will go directly to the charity and Justgiving make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">So please dig deep and donate what you can for this amazing charity, either click the </span><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">DONATE NOW</span></span></strong><strong><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></strong><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">button or text to: </span><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">70070</span></span></strong><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"> with the code </span><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">COOK79</span></span></strong><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"> and</span><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"> £...... </span></span></strong><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">the amount you are donating.<a href="http://www.echo-evelina.org.uk/"><span style="color: #606420;"> </span></a></span></span></p>
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