QMC & City Hospital Neonatal Units
Sarah Forsyth is raising money for Nottingham University Hospitals Charity
In memory of Joseph Peter Forsyth
Story
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I am raising money on behalf of the Neo Natal Units at QMC & Nottingham City Hospitals, who treated my son Joseph Peter Forsyth, when he was born 14 weeks and 2 days premature.
Joseph's Story
12th October 2009 was when I & James got the miracle we'd spent 2yrs and 10 months praying for. When we first saw the line on the pregnancy test we didn't say a word just cried.
7th December was our first scan, and there he was our little bake bean, wriggling around and waving, it was our baby our miracle.
Everything on the scan was brilliant , no problems and the baby was perfect, we had another scan on 16th Jan at 16 weeks because the midwife couldn't hear a heartbeat, but again everything was fine and right on schedule.
Our next big scan was 8th February, I was 21 weeks pregnant by now, and could certainly tell, my bake bean was certainly a little mover.
Again the scan was perfect, and we also saw something that made us think that perhaps our bake bean was a male bake bean! And that’s when Joseph got his name.
Saturday 6th March we finished Joseph’s nursery and sorted out all of his things into some order. Saturday night things weren't quite right but nothing major, but I phoned the emergency midwife just to check that what I was experiencing was normal. She said there was nothing to worry about, but just to give my regular midwife a call on Monday morning.
Monday morning arrived and when I spoke to my midwife, she sent me into hospital to get checked. At the hospital they did all the checks and said everything was ok and to continue resting today and I could go back to work on the Tuesday. I got home and James went to work and I went for a lie down. An hour later I woke with stomach ache, it wasn't really hurting and I just thought it was because I’d been prodded around, but when I start losing blood an hour later, I did start to panic.
I called the hospital and they told me to come in, my sister came and fetched me and we made our way to the Nottingham City Hospital.
We arrived at 19:30pm, and again after speaking to a midwife, we decided that I’d get checked and I’d be going home with some paracetamol.
The consultant arrived and my world collapsed, after examining me she said I was 4cm dilated and my waters were bulging, in the next few hours all hell broke loose, there were doctors and midwifes and consultants running in and out, needles with hormones and steroids going into my arms and legs, and then the Neonatal consultant arrived to tell me, if you deliver tonight, your baby has very little chance of survival and if he does survive he will most likely have some kind of mental or physical disability, but we will do everything we can to delay the labour and keep him in until you reach 26 weeks, which would give him a massive advantage.
No pressure then!!!!!!!
The minutes ticked by and then the hours, just had to make it to 22:00hrs on Tuesday and then I could have my second steroid injection; this would help his lungs mature.
Well I made it to 22:00hrs and in went the second injection, now my next target was 00:00hrs and it will have been in for a couple of hours and began to work.
Wednesday morning arrived and my contractions had stopped, so I was moved to a ward on bed rest, but by 20:30 I was back down on labour ward 8cm dilated.
I managed to hold on to him until Friday morning, when they realised that his heart rate had increased too much, that was when the consultant decided that he had to come and burst my waters, 6 minutes later our little boy arrived, rather dramatically as he was breech and became stuck.
He was worked on by the neonatal team for about 5 minutes and then taken into the NICU. We didn't see our baby until 13:55pm.
We fell in love instantly, all 800g of him was perfect, and he was approx 11 inches long and completely bruised down his right side due to his traumatic birth.
His consultant took us to one side and pointed out the facts, Joseph was very ill, three things going against him:
1, He was a boy (boys don't fight as hard as girls) and he was 14 weeks premature.
2, His traumatic entrance into the world (I blame myself for this, I pushed him out and caused his bruising, but if I hadn't he would have died inside me, but knowing that doesn’t take the guilt away).
3, His birth had caused 2 bleeds on his brain (1 on the left and another on the right) and at this present time, we couldn't tell how serious these were.
On the plus side, he had responded extremely well to treatment and was fighting.
Within 2 days our Joseph was being fed some of my milk and had been extrubated and placed on CPAP, he was breathing on his own :)
2 days later (Mothers Day) and still on CPAP and the consultants saying he had seen an improvement, we were on cloud 9. Then the doctors needed to put a long line in, this helps them administer medicines and TPN (a substitute feed containing all the vitamins and minerals needed to sustain life) they then x-rayed Joseph to make sure it was in the correct place, and by chance noticed that his bowel was perforated in 3 places, and again we were thrown into turmoil.
Our baby was now being re intrubated and transferred to QMC NICU as this is where all the best surgeons for this operation are based.
Again our world collapsed, how could a baby so small survive such an operation?
Joseph was placed into a transport incubator and sped to QMC, we were suddenly catapulted into an alien world, ok it was another NICU but completely different to City, and I hated it!
We were given a room on the unit and then taken to the family room, where the surgeons explained Joseph’s operation. Because he wasn't showing any signs of being poorly, they decided not to operate and see if his bowel would repair itself (a huge sigh).
But by 05:00am Thursday morning his condition had deteriorated and now they were struggling to stabilize him enough for surgery, by 12:00 noon he was again placed into a transport incubator ready to go to surgery, and we had to say goodbye to our boy.
At 16:15pm Joseph was back in the bay and recovering, he had 8cm of his bowel removed and a stoma, and he also had peritonitis and was on antibiotics for that. He was very sick but alive.
Joseph recoved well from his operation, and as the days went on he got stronger, they decided to put him back on CPAP, I was really worried in case his bowel perforated again, he managed approx 12hrs and then had to be re vented because he'd tired himself out (this isn't unusual in preemies).
Then Joseph started showing signs of sepsis (infection) although his blood cultures weren't growing anything, they started to treat him for meningitis. Another setback, but apparently again very common in preemies.
But good news he can start to be fed with my milk, 1ml every 2hrs a very tiny amount but a huge step forward for Joseph, and then he did his first milky poo into his stoma bag, I could have cried I was so happy, this was a giant step forward, it meant his stomach and bowel were tolerating my milk, not something that allot of preemies do, and therefore his milk could be increased, every 12hrs his quota went up by 1ml.
Although the surgery side of things were excellent, Josephs lungs weren't good and he was proving difficult for them on the ventilation side of things, they reintrubated him 4 times on one particular day and during one of the attempts he had a hormonal bleed into his lung. But again he came round, and although my heart felt like it had stopped, Joseph was doing ok.
Then his left lung collapsed and they put him onto a different type of ventilation called Oscillation, this is where the air is pumped in that quickly the babies actually bounce, babies don’t normally like this type of ventilation so it sometimes doesn’t work, however Joseph had to be the exception to the norm and he loved it and responded brilliantly, I on the other hand didn't, it scared me to death watching my little baby having such evasive treatment.
After a few hours his lung was re inflated and Joseph was again on the road to recovery, time for them to put a new long line in.
Joseph stabilized over the next couple of days and they discussed taking him of the vent and onto CPAP again, they decided to wait a few days until after the weekend and to give his lungs time to get stronger again. In the meantime his feeds were up to 7ml every 2hrs, the maximum for a baby his size (which at this stage was 2lb 2oz).
It was Easter weekend and myself and James had a couple of good days with Joseph, and I started to relax a bit, and dream of the day when we would take him home. I showed James how to feed Joseph and we changed his nappies together, he always managed to wee on me but never his dad! James also got to pick Joseph up (albeit in the incubator) whilst they changed his sheets.
Things were getting better and James even managed to persuade me to leave the unit for a couple of hours, we went to Mothercare with another couple from the unit, to get Joseph a new blanket and some clothes seeing as he was getting bigger.
Easter Monday was good and Joseph behaved himself, Tuesday 6th April, James was back at work tonight, so he left the hospital at about 12 noon so he could sought things out at home and get ready for work.
Tuesday pm and Joseph started to get uncomfortable with his ventilation again, they decided to change his tube for a bigger one and alter his ventilation slightly, this worked and by 18:45pm Josephs oxygen requirements had been dramatically reduced, so much his nurse, Julie took photos of his vent machine.
Joseph really settled well for the next couple of hours, I was so tired I decided that I would go back to the room and have an hour to chill. His next nappy change was due at 22:00hrs, so I told his nurse Cherry I would be back for that, I told Joseph to behave and told him mummy would be back in an hour, I left the unit at 21:05pm.
At 21:55pm I walked back into the unit, I took one look into Josephs bay and realised something wasn't right, he had 2 nurses with him and his monitors showed flat lines! I staggered to the reception, where a nurse sat me down, I phoned James and told him that I needed him back at the unit (at this point I didn't tell him what had happened) next one of the sisters came to see me, I asked her ' is Joseph dead' 'No' she said ' his tube just came loose'.
I was relieved but something inside me told me this wasn't the case, next I was ushered into the family room to wait. After what seemed like an eternity, Josephs nurse came to see me.
Josephs heart had stopped for no reason, after 8 minutes they had managed to get it going again, but he was seriously poorly.
Our friends from the unit Kim and Dustin phoned my sister for me and she came and sat with me, I really wanted so much to sit with Joseph, but I just couldn't, I was scared that if he knew I was there he would go before James arrived.
James arrived at about 00:15, we went to see our little man, and he looked just as he always did, but with so many doctors and nurses running round, then his consultant arrived, he took us into the family room and explained Josephs condition, His heart had already stopped 3 times, his blood pressure was also falling and they couldn't tell us why, there was no reason for it, his next words will stay with me forever ' Joseph might not make it through the night, shall I call the chaplain for you'.
Myself and James went to see Joseph and we could see that he was poorly, we prayed and begged him to pull through, but out little boy was tired, then his heart stopped again, the doctors started to work on him again, myself and James had a quick talk and went back in ' Stop, let him go, he's tired and I don't want him hurting anymore' the doctors looked at us and again we said ' he's had enough' I then asked them to pass me my baby, and for the first time I held Joseph, he was 26 days old.
Myself and James then took turns giving him cuddles, we bathed him and dressed him and took footprints and handprints and lots of photos.
His funeral was held on 23rd April, David Reast the chaplain that saw Joseph the morning he passed away, did the service and it was lovely, he read a short piece about Joseph that myself and James had written, a poem called 'A Baby Angel' and another poem that James had written called 'Little Man', we played 'This Women’s Work' - Kate Bush, 'Precious Child' - Karen Taylor Good and 'Fly' - Celine Dion.
We will never forget Joseph, he was our first born and filled our hearts with love and our life’s with meaning, We could feel very bitter for only having 26 days with Joseph, but we will treasure those precious days for the rest of our lives, and that was only made possible because of the excellent care & nursing and surgery skills of the Surgeons, consultants, doctors and nurses off the Neo Natal Intensive Care Units at both City Hospital and the Queens Medical Centre.
We would like to say a big thank you to them for giving us those precious days xxx
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