Arabella's Story

On January 12th, Tamsyn went to Epsom Hospital for a follow-up blood test, anticipating a quick return home. However, after urgent assessments, she received a diagnosis of severe preeclampsia and was swiftly transferred by ambulance to St Heliers Hospital. In the following days, medical staff worked to stabilise Tamsyn's high blood pressure, aiming to sustain the pregnancy until at least 30 weeks.

However, on Tuesday, January 16th, following a scan, it was confirmed that the placenta was failing, and the baby was no longer moving. Four hours later, Arabella was delivered via emergency C-section at 27 weeks and 5 days gestation, weighing a mere 800g. Classed as an extremely premature birth, Arabella still let out a little cry straight away before being taken by the neonatologists and transferred immediately to the Neonatal ward for support.

Arabella was doing well during her first 24 hours on just CPAP ventilation, but during the night of January 17th, she had to be intubated and therefore moved from St Heliers (a grade 2 neonatal ward) to St George's (grade 3) for the highest level of neonatal support in ICU. Luckily, Dad arrived in time to be blue-lighted with Arabella to St George’s, while Mum had to wait for her own transfer a few hours later. Since relocating to St George’s, we have received consistent support from First Touch, who have been exceptional—providing accommodation, guidance on expressing milk, and various other forms of assistance. Arabella has since come off intubation and is doing well. We are nowhere near going home, but we are grateful every day for the incredible support we are receiving from First Touch.

First Touch supports parents at the St George's neonatal unit, providing accommodation, snacks, drinks, and, importantly, key medical equipment to help support sick and premature babies. They also provide services such as VCreate, a service that allows nurses to send parents pictures of their babies when they aren't at the unit. VCreate has been particularly reassuring for us, receiving photos of Arabella during times we are unable to be with her.

Chris, Charlotte, Todd, and (subject to Arabella’s status - Al) will be running the Kew Gardens Half Marathon on March 31st in support of First Touch and the incredible work they do at St George's Hospital. Following on from this Tamsyn and Alasdair will be running Royal parks half marathon in October. We have set an optimistic goal of £10,000 to raise for them, which would help fund a service like VCreate for over a year or help to buy key medical equipment for the ward such as apnoea monitors, ventilators, and more. Anything you can contribute would be hugely appreciated and will make an immense difference in helping babies like Arabella across the unit.