Zachary Joseph Ramdeen was born on Wednesday 12 September weighing 5lb 11oz via C-section at 37 weeks gestation.  Zac brought immense joy and love into our family from the moment that he was born and we are eternally grateful that we had the opportunity to have him in our lives, to love and care for him, however short the time together was. 

Zac was identified as having a congenital heart defect at his 20-week scan. He had a Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DORV), Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA) and a large Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) or ‘hole between the ventricles’.  He was monitored through the rest of the pregnancy by cardiologists at the Oxford Radcliffe and Great Ormond Street Hospitals.  Surgery to repair his heart with a 95% chance of success was planned to take place at GOSH sometime in the first few weeks or months after Zac was born.

Zac came home 48 hours after he was born. He surpassed all of our expectations, coping very well and needing no extra medicines to stay well.  He was a beautiful, calm, alert and contented little boy who loved to be cuddled and spoken to. He particularly liked having a bath and listening to his big sister Ella’s voice.  We cherished every moment of the normal family time that we had over the first 3 weeks of Zac’s short life, enjoying the simple pleasures of day-to-day life with a newborn.

The surgeons at GOSH decided to undertake the surgery to fully repair Zac’s heart while he was fit and well and before any deterioration in his heart or lung function occurred. The date of surgery was set for Friday 5 October, when Zac was 3 weeks and 2 days old. 

Unfortunately, the surgery was complicated and long, requiring the immense skill of Zac’s surgeon to ensure that the full repair was completed, leaving Zac with a 4-chamber and ‘normal’ anatomy heart. However, the challenges presented during surgery meant that Zac was on heart/lung bypass for 5 hours and in surgery for 8 hours and this took its toll on his small body.  The team were not able to get Zac off the bypass machine in the operating theatre and so in order to save his life, they instead transferred him to the support of an ECMO machine which is available at only 3 centres in the UK, including GOSH and provides a gentler and longer term form of bypass.  The ECMO machine enabled Zac’s heart to rest after the ordeal of surgery and the cardiac team caring for him on the intensive care unit (Flamingo Ward) were hopeful that it would enable him to recover. 

Zac showed incredible strength and a determination to fight on. After 48 hours on ECMO support, he proved what he was made of by coming successfully off ECMO, surprising a number of the specialists looking after him.  As his sedation was weaned down, he opened his eyes and began to move a little, giving us great hope that our brave boy was still fighting.  There were still challenges ahead, Zac’s heart had to stabilise fully, his chest was still open from the surgery and could not be closed until he was stronger and more stable.

Zac battled on for 10 days after his surgery, showing steady progress towards recovery. However, at ten days post op the decision was made to attempt chest closure, as the threat of infection was ever present.  On that day we spent some lovely time at Zac’s bedside as he was on very few medicines and he began to wake up from his sedation. We were thrilled to see his little eyes looking around and responding to our voices.  Later that day, the surgeons successfully closed brave Zac’s chest but to our devastation and terrible sadness, through the afternoon, Zac’s heart began to show signs of deterioration and ultimately stopped beating at 5pm on Sunday 14 October. 

Our brave but tiny soldier Zachary was given one challenge too many. He was so close to turning the corner towards recovery and his inspiring courage and beauty will always remain with us. We would like to dedicate this page to our wonderful and never-to-be-forgotten son, in the hope that any funds raised can in some way help to support the phenomenal work of the teams who cared for Zac. 

 Flamingo ward (Cardiac Intensive Care) is a very special place, filled with a dedicated, caring and brilliant cardiac specialist team of professionals and we are grateful for the sophisticated and wonderful care that they gave to Zachary. 

Thank you in advance for any donations to GOSH that you may make via this page. We intend to keep the page open for life, to leave a lasting legacy in honour of Zac. So there is no hurry, it will be here ready for any donation (small or big) at any time for many years to come!