Samantha Ames

I was invited by one of our UK representatives to share my CHERUBS story. Here it is!

As far as pregnancies go, I guess you could say mine was fairly straight forward. Of course I had the odd blip, but nothing major. The worst was a kidney infection that landed me in hospital, but that had no effect on Archie.

I paid for early scans and everything was reported fine. ‘A very healthy baby’ He was a good size, very active and a very strong heart beat. Alex and I couldn’t wait to meet him. Leading up to my pregnancy we had been having a few challenges, so he was our light at the end of the tunnel.

I had planned to have a natural birth from day one, but at around 33 weeks c section was discussed due to some positional issues. I was given the choice and still today I cannot explain why, but I chose caesarean.

On 24th January we arrived at Princess Royal Hospital in Bromley with my hospital bag like children on Christmas day! We were so excited to finally meet our baby!!

Archibald Alan Ashton was born at 14.07 and weighed 6lb 1oz. We were discharged from hospital after 48 hours and couldn’t believe our luck… He was the perfect baby!

For 3 weeks Archie thrived. He ate, he gained weight, he was never sick, he was going from strength to strength.

One day he started to cry after every feed. He would drink a few mouthfuls and then stop for breath. That afternoon I took him to the GP who, without even touching him, diagnosed it as reflux. I was told to sit him up after every feed and give him gaviscon if he got worse.

That night was terrible, he struggled with his feeds and cried non stop. The next morning my mum looked after him while I caught up on some sleep. He was much better, what a relief I thought!
When she passed him to me that afternoon ill never forget what happened. As I took him he stared at me and took the deepest breath ive ever seen. His breathing then got faster and harder until the skin under his ribs was sucked up with each breath. I called my Health visitor who told me to go to the GP, I refused. We got straight in the car and drove to A&E.

The nurses took him straight from me and began giving him oxygen. They suspected Bronchiolitis. He was transferred to a ward and Xrays were taken as a precaution. He was then placed onto a breathing machine called CPAP.

After what felt like hours we were called over by the Doctor and showed the Xray results. He explained that Archie had a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia on his right side and would need immediate transfer to The Evelina Childrens Hospital at St Thomas’ London. My first words were ‘Is it life threatening?’ The Doctor replied ‘You must prepare yourselves for what is ahead. Your baby is very ill’

My whole world fell apart.

The retrieval service arrived from London and began preparing him for transfer. He was placed into an induced coma and put into the ambulance. Alex and my mum and brother followed behind ,although they lost us at some traffic lights when the sirens started going and we rocketed to The Evelina.

After assessment Archie was stabilised and the decision was made to leave him on life support whilst a team of surgeons planned his operation very carefully. He remained stable for the next 24 hours and the operation was planned for the following day.

That day came and was the hardest of all. Signing the consent form for me was the hardest. I didnt want to let go. At that point he was alive and stable, I wanted to just freeze time and spend more time with him.

The following hours were agony.

We were called out of the parents room early and told the surgeon needed to speak with us. We couldn’t move.
The surgeon explained that the surgery was successful. It had gone as well as it could and Archie was in recovery and would be out soon. I cannot describe how we felt at that moment. Im not even going to begin to try. All we knew was, we were the luckiest people in the world at that moment.

Since leaving the Evelina, Archie has suffered no serious complications and we are told he is unlikely to have any future problems relating to his CDH.

He is now 14 months, living partly in Africa, partly in England and enjoying his very precious life to the absolute max.

Thank you for inviting me to share my story.

God bless all the CHERUBS, here and in the stars.