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As many of you know, Ethan was born nearly 14 weeks early, in September 2007 weighing just 1lb11oz. He was looked after at the Neonatal Unit in Milton Keynes Hospital and during our time there the Little Lives Appeal was launched to raise money to extend the capacity of the unit in order to care for 350 babies born too early or too poorly every year.

Ethans neonatal career was pretty full-on. He suffered brain and lung haemorrages and needed to be ventilated for almost 6 weeks until an operation to close a duct in his heart was performed when we was just 38 days old and weighed just 2lb 13oz. He seemed far too small to have such major surgery. The surgery did allow him to make better efforts at breathing though and he was able to manage on a CPAP machine which delivered pressured air to assist his breathing and prevent his lungs collapsing, which they did just once.

During his 22 weeks in the NNU Ethan fought off a number of the infections that attack vulnerable little bodies, had frequent eye exams which resulted in laser eye surgery to save his sight, tried out several of the breathing support apparatus available, eventually graduating onto the nasal prong oxygen which he was discharged on. He struggled to master breathing and needed to be resuscitated 15 times on one particularly bad day. He had a number of blood transfusions to replace the blood that was taken for testing as babies that little simply can't replace it themselves quickly enough.  Ethan also struggled to feed independently so was fed through a tube in his nose (which he frequently pulled out) until about 2 weeks before he was allowed home. We celebrated Christmas, his 1st 100 days and then his 1st 150 days before he was finally allowed home on day 154.

The work the Neonatal Unit does is simply outstanding and we remain forever grateful for their dedication and perserverance in caring for Ethan and their unending support for us as parents going through a hugely traumatic experience. Please sponsor us as much as you can so that we can support the unit with their appeal. Thanks.

 

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