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The long and short of it,

My beautiful niece Tierny-Marie is 2 weeks old today 23/07/08 and for those 2 weeks she has been staying at Alder Hey. My sister and her husband have been staying at the Ronald McDonald House adjacent to the hospital which allows them to see Tierny 24 hours a day. I stayed over and it was amazing, the place is wonderful and the staff are great. She couldn't be in a better place other than home with her parents and big sister Eloise.

Like many of the brave children on her ward and throughout the hospital Tierny is having an operation soon, then she will be able to return home.

Her condition is rare (Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage (TAPVD)) but very treatable and the operation is a one off but to go through it once is enough. Tiernys mummy Rebecca, her daddy Damien and big sister Eloise are  looking forward to getting her home.

Doctors and nurses

The nurses and doctors are great at giving support to my sister, her husband and the other parents. Many people donate to Alder Hey and just a little contribution does definately go a long way. 

A little more about her condition for friends and family to understand

Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage (TAPVD) accounts for 1-2% of congenital heart defects. If all four of the pulmonary veins which carry oxygenated blood from the lungs to the left atrium of the heart develop anomolous (strange) connections, this is known as TAPVD.

- All oxygenated blood returning from her lungs drains into the systemic venous system instead of the left atrium in the heart.

- Pulmonary venous blood (oxygenated) and systemic venous blood (deoxygenated) is mixed, low oxygen levels are present.

- TAPVD is associated with hypertrophy (overdevelopment) of the media of the pulmonary veins and arteries.

- The goal of surgical therapy for TAPVD is to create unobstructed egress (drainage) of blood from the pulmonary veins into the left atrium.

An update on Tierny-Marie 5/9/08

She has had her operation and came through brilliantly. She was on High Dependancy for a very short time as she is a fighter. The doctors are pleased with her progress and I am pleased to say that she is doing very well.

Thank you to everyone for your support and kindness in whatever way you showed it... from  Rebecca and Damien, Eloise and myself !

Tiny Tierny's heart battle

( As seen in the Rossendale Free Press )

Exclusive by Jenny Brookfield
10/10/2008

A NEWBORN baby had to endure major heart surgery after doctors warned she could die without it.

Rebecca and Damien Eastwood were horrified when their tiny daughter Tierny started turning blue shortly after she was born at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

She was rushed to intensive care and then transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool when medics realised she needed specialist care.

There, scans revealed Tierny had a rare condition called TAPVD (Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage), which means the veins bringing oxygenated blood from the lungs are connected to the wrong part of the heart.

After four weeks at Alder Hey, Tierny underwent a gruelling five-hour operation during which surgeons had to open up her chest and stop her heart in order to reconnect the veins and to repair a small hole in her heart. It was an operation that saved her life.

Now three months old, Tierny is happily home on Hillside Road, Haslingden, with her parents and sister Eloise, three.

Rebecca and Damien say they will be forever grateful for what the medical experts at Alder Hey did for their daughter and the ‘fantastic’ way they were treated during Tierny’s time there.

Explaining they had set up a fund-raising campaign to help others in the same position, Damien, 27, said: ‘It was a major shock when it happened because I was expecting to be able to fetch them both home.

‘But Alder Hey was the best place for Tierny to be; we want to make sure that other parents in the same situation get the same brilliant treatment that we did.’

Rebecca, 23, recalled: ‘It was horrible at first because I couldn’t look after my baby. I couldn’t cuddle her; it was almost like she belonged to the hospital with being connected to all the machines.’

Damien added: ‘She had all these chest drains coming out of her; it was the worst sight I’ve ever seen in my life.’

But as staff prepared her for the operation, Damien and Rebecca were able to stay by Tierny’s side and to feed her themselves using a nasal tube.

And for the five weeks she was at the hospital they were able to stay on site in free relatives’ accommodation Ronald McDonald House.

Little fighter Tierny was so strong she was allowed home from hospital the same week she had the operation; now only a scar down her chest and three marks where drainage tubes were attached are a reminder of what she went through.

She will have to have check-ups until she is 18, but is not expected to need anymore surgery.

Damien, a firefighter at Haslingden Fire Station, and Rebecca, who works at Haslingden salon Beautylicious, have now set up a fund-raising appeal for Ronald McDonald House, which is staffed by volunteers and relies on donations.

Damien said: ‘All the staff were fantastic; they were so loving and made you feel like one big family. Now we want to raise as much money as we can.’

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