Im Katrina im 31 yrs old and Im married with 5 healthy Children, In 2005 my life changed , my world came crumbling down on us , Now heres our story and the reason why were fundraising for the scbu at Kettering . Without 3 special nurses jane, nicola and gloria macy wouldnt have come home with us she would have passed away in there, we owe so much to them .
September 2005 we found out i was pregnant with our 4th child, Everything was going well and @ 20 weeks we found out i was carrying another girl this was our 4th daughter , at this point in my pregnancy the only thing that was of any problem was spd the worst pain id felt, My husband had chosen a name which i wasnt to keen on but i did warm to it and we decided on macy mae , When i receached 34 weeks something felt different i wasnt carrying as heavy as i was so i took a trip to the labour ward and my waters had broken 6 weeks early , this wasnt uncommon for me, So they kept me in a nd planned to leave me a week the if nothing had happened start labour, i went for a scan just to check weight and she was smaller than average so they decided the next day to get me down to labour ward to deliver, 6 hrs later this little bundle arrived looking very battered and bruised but thats cause she was squashed up for so long, the scbu dr looked at ther said they take her to the unit for oxygen as she was 6 weeks early, id showered , hubby had gone to spread the news , right we were ready to go see her, A baby doctor needs to speak to you we were told, right then something told me she wasnt a healthy bouncing baby something was wrong , i began to panic my heart yerned i needed my mum , by now were in the scbu unit talking to this dr he told us she had features of a baby with trisomy 13/ patous syndrome. Then another bang if it was she wouldnt make it through the night , The 17th may 2006 was the worst day of my life, i never dreamt of this happening to me we, were the normal kind of family things like this didnt happen , well it was a nd it was happening to us , it was like a dream but secretly id put it to the back of my mind and thought she will be fine, i managed to drift of to sleep only to be woken 3 hrs later by the midwife she was getting worse and i needed to be with her, She was now struggling to breath her sats were dipping, so a machine called cpap helped her and she settled a little , The machines in the icu were beeping all the time and it was so scary , It was ahrd accepting that she could fall asleep at any time and not wake up, we both sat with her 24/7 we slept there we ate there, 2 days later the dreaded tests had come back they had confirmed my worse nightmare that hit us like a ton of bricks , We were asked many times what we planned on doing if she stopped breathing, however we never got to make the choice as she made it herself , Macy was proving everyone wrong.
Within the thirteen days in the SCBU they confirmed she was deaf, blind, had kidney problems and a brain abnormailty plus a serious Heart defect. She also required oxygen 24 hours a day. We were given the chance to take Macy home to die at 13 days old. So on Tuesday the 30th May at 11am we left in a ambulance to take her home. The equipment was in the house ready for us we just waited for that day to come. Weeks turned into months and we started to enjoy having her around even though it was different. We celebrated her first christmas, her first smile, the first time she held her head up then her 1st birthday - something we never thought we would see. Then on September 6th we had to make another hard decision regarding an operation that would help with her feeding. We decided to go for it and were told to expect complications and even death. Well one hour later they brought her back to the ward and was released the next morning, once again proving the doctors wrong.
Im so proud of her. Macy enjoyed her second christmas and we planned her second birthday. We decided a big party was in order. After being taken into hospital in Febuaury for a chest infection Macy was released as it had cleared up. The next five days she was happy in herself, even went to nursery that she loved, she loved spending time with her nurse Claire. On the monday the day after Mothers Day she began to breathe funny so i called the out of hours doctors who told me to call an ambulance. A chest infection is what i thought - a couple more days in the childrens ward. I was so so wrong. Within 15 minutes of getting to hospital i was told she was in renal failure and she wouldnt be getting better. I had to make the choice of whether to move her to Leicester hospital and have her ventilated or leave her at Kettering and let her die. It was so hard but we decided if it was her time then we would let her go. Deep in my mind i kept thinking "they're wrong again - she'll be home soon". Well 12am they moved her to the ward my hubby, mum and me sat with her until she dozed of into her sleep. I decided to go home get some food and change of clothes. This was 1.15 in the morning. I rang the hospital at 2.30 and Macy was fine. Ten minutes later the nurse rang me, it was the call I'd dreaded all her life - just 22 short months - it was the call that broke my heart - the call to say she had stopped breathing. I got to the hospital at 2.42, the doctors were all crying, the nurses were and my hubby was sobbing. That day would be the worst day of my life. Macy died at 2.40 am on the 4th march 2008 at Kettering general hospital. She was laid to rest at Kettering cemetery on the 12th March. She rode in style in a carriage pulled by 2 horses in a little pink coffin, we let balloons of as they lowered her snuggle box into the ground, By now we were sobbing but to our amazement something made all the girls laugh they had all got stuck in the trees she didnt want them to go she wanted to play herself , Macy meant the world to alot of people not just us everyone infect from people that passed in the street to nurses that carered for her. She was a proper little princess.
