Our beautiful baby son, Sebastian James was born on January 14th 2014. He seemed like a regular newborn when he arrived and everything in our world was perfect.  We spent the first two days of his life having special time bonding together and couldn't have been happier.  We were now a family of four and nothing could change that... or so we thought.

On Thursday January 16th Sebastian was rushed from his little crib on the Maternity ward at Frimley Park Hospital to ICU.  He had vomited and then stopped breathing.  They sucessfully resuscitated him but they feared he had a problem with his heart.  He was then rushed to Southampton General Hospital to the PICU that night.  The next morning we were informed that they needed to perform open heart surgery on him immediately.  He had TAPVD (Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage) a very rare condition where the Pulmonary Veins which carry blood back to the heart after it has circulated through the lungs, are not connected to the left atrium. Instead they are connected to one of the veins from the main circulation so that the blood returning from the lungs drains back to the right side of the heart.  The operation was a success although they discovered other complications such as blood clots in main arteries and kidney failure.  He went through many further operations to put lines in to enable drugs and food to be administered.  He survived them all, even when one operation went badly wrong and the surgeon cut his liver and caused internal bleeding.  

On Monday 10th February he was progressing well so he came off his ventilator.  He was now breathing on his own with a little help from some oxygen.  Each day went past and he was progressing well.  On Friday 14th February we were told that he would leave the PICU unit and be moved up to the ward as he was doing so well.  

On Saturday 15th the consultant noticed that his PD (Peritoneal Dialysis) line which had been acting as his kidneys had come out and he was unsure how long it had been that way.  An hour later his heart began to slow down and we watched helplessly as he was given CPR.  Sadly they were unable to start his heart and he died.  

 

We are now trying to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in memory of our beautiful little Sebastian 'Soldier'. If you feel you would like to donate to a very worthwhile cause then please click on the 'donate' button and follow the instructions.  Thank you in advance for your kindness and support.