Ariyana Sharma

7th January 2014 5.06pm

3rd February 2014 5.07am

 

Ariyana was born at 23 weeks and 5 days gestation at the Princess Royal Maternity Unit in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. I was admitted to hospital with chorioamnionitis which is an infection of the membranes surrounding the baby.
She weighed just 1lb 7oz at birth. We got our first cuddle when Ariyana was 12 days old. She had received so many blood transfusions, brain scans, heart scans, you name it. Our little girl was a fighter!
She had been booked in to go to Yorkhill to have an operation on a duct at her heart that diverts blood away from the lungs (all babies have this in the womb as they don't need their lungs until they're born so it's common not to have closed when born prematurely). Ariyana went two days off her ventilator, on cpap as they do not like them being on the ventilator too long as it would make her chronic lung disease worse...
However, on 31st January, Ariyana wasn't doing too good... her ventilator was changed to an oscillating ventilator and she was given morphine as this new ventilator isn't very comfortable for the baby... Antibiotics were also given to her and her breast milk was stopped as well as being sedated to try and figure out what was the problem (and to give her a break).
The next morning, they noticed fresh blood in her faeces... and she hadn't passed any urine since the night before. Her hands and feet were so cold... Necrotising enterocolitis is an infection of the gut which is another common illness in premature babies. Ariyana didn't have any of the warning signs. No distended abdomen or discolouration...
Ariyana fought til the end. Her blood pressure was gradually getting worse and her kidneys weren't working... Ariyana's heart stopped just before 8pm and she received cpr for ten minutes before they got her back. This showed that her cardiovascular system was very poor. The reason for her heart stopping was that her endotracheal tube was dislodged. The decision was made at midnight for Ariyana to enjoy her last cuddle with mummy and daddy as her body was not strong enough to fight the infection... and guess what? While cuddling her daddy for two hours, her blood pressure started to increase. Her oxygen saturations always increased during kangaroo care (cuddles down mummy and daddy's t-shirt). After a lengthly discussion, it was decided that she was to be put back into the incubator and they decided to try medication again, but it just wasn't enough. Ariyana couldn't maintain her blood pressure and they were losing access. At 5am on 3rd February 2014, her ventilator was removed whilst having a cuddle with mummy and our angel went to sleep.
Seeing Ariyana without anything on her face, we finally got to see how beautiful our baby girl was. She will be forever in our hearts.
The doctors and nurses could not possibly have done anything else for her. They were also great at looking after mummy and daddy.

Ariyana's bloods did not suggest infection. We opted not to have a post mortem. Necrotising enterocolitis may have been developing at the time of her death, and she was in renal failure.  Her little organs just weren't ready to survive outside of the womb and they gave up after trying for 26 days.

There was a parents kitchen which was put in following donations from a previous family as well as a parents room where we got to spend the whole day with Ariyana after she lost the fight for her life.

This was the best 4 weeks of our lives. An angel who has touched many people's lives. We want to give back to the unit who made it possible for us to get to know our daughter. We will never be able to express how thankful we are for the time that we had with our sweet Ariyana.

Thank you.

 

One vapotherm machine costs £2,500

I may not be able to raise that much but every penny does make a difference.