Aidan’s Story

The first 24 weeks of our pregnancy was completely normal, all of our scans showed no abnormalities and we found out we where having a gorgeous baby boy.

When we reached week 25 things began to change and mum started getting stomach pains which felt like braxton hicks. They arranged for us to have a scan the following morning at Hairmyres Hospital.This is where our journey began, once the sonographer began to scan us she advised she could see something on Aidans lungs and needed us to be seen by a specialist right away.

We were passed along to the Fetal medicine unit in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for further investigation, the doctors scanned us and took us into the consultation room afterwards. We were told our precious baby had a large tumour (CPAM) on his right lung which took over the majority of his chest cavity pushing his heart and left lung round his back. He had developed hydrops fatalis which decreased his chance of survival. The odds Aidan would survive were uncertain, we were advised to prepare ourselves for the worst outcome on a few occasions throughout this journey.

Aidan was delivered on the 1st of October; we got to see him for ten minutes before his team of specialists took him away for examination and procedures. Aidan wasn’t able to breathe on his own, which resulted in him being intubated and sedated from birth. The results of the CT scan showed the tumour was growing and the options of surgery for this type of diagnosis were limited. A biopsy would determine whether or not surgery would even be an option, if the tumour turned out to be malignant then unfortunately the doctors would not be able to save our boy.

Thankfully once the doctors performed the biopsy, the results showed the tumour was benign and this allowed a team of professionals to conduct a plan on how to remove the tumour. We were given a 66% chance of survival for the operation. The team that performed the surgery were amazing, they reassured us that they would do everything they could to safely remove the tumour preserving as much working lung tissue as possible but explained that removing the entire right lung was a real possibility.

The day of the surgery was the longest day of both our life’s. Aidans surgery was approx-15 hours long. We eventually got a phone call from the head surgeon that led the operation starting the phone call with two words we will never forget: “we’re ok”. We rushed to meet the surgeon who explained that they successfully removed the lower lobe of the right lung and Aidans heart moved back in to place “all on its own, beautifully”.

The days after the surgery were critical, but with a miracle Aidan showed strength and resilience at every hurdle. We managed to wean him off his mediciation and for the first time since he was born we managed to take him off sedation were we got to see our beautiful boys eyes for the first time.

Without the Glasgow Children’s Hospital we would not be home with our precious Aidan. They saved our boys life. The gave us our family of 4.

We owe a special thank you to more people than we can remember throughout this roller coaster of a journey but there are four people who deserve real credit for the miracles they performed on our boy.

Dr Janice Gibson- Kept both of us sane throughout Gemmas time in hospital evidently calling every decision correctly in regards to timing of delivery, procedures like both amniotic fluid reductions and when to administer steroids that we believe saved our babies life before he was born.

Dr Jen Good- Jen was the Dr who informed us of all possibilities on day one when Gemma was admitted and was there to see us off the day we were discharged to take our boy home. Jen was there for every difficult conversation and gave us the overwhelmingly emotional news that Aidans tumour was non cancerous. A day we will never forget.

Dr Chuck McLean- Dr McLean was the lead surgeon who ultimately decided to go ahead with and direct the surgery. We can’t thank him enough for his bluntness and straight to the point approach. We found this was very reassuring and strangely gave us hope more than anything. It was when Dr McLean got involved that everything started to progress.

Dr Tim Bradnock- Dr Bradnock is the surgeon that removed the tumour. Tim also pushed for the biopsy and was the Dr who explained everything so compassionately when things were so worrying. He really made us feel like the hospital cared and were doing everything possible to save our baby. He became Aidans Consultant throughout the recovery and performed all the post surgery procedures like removing chest drains after ECMO and closing Aidans chest. He kept us informed and really explained everything in a way we could understand throughout it all. We felt a need to thank Tim in some way so we named our baby Aidan Tim Osbaldstone.

There is not enough thanks in this world to show our gratitude to every nurse/doctor/consultant that was with us through this journey.

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