Whittle, Natalie Dianne

[left:31dbd5c511]http://www.cherubs-cdh.org/Album/new/whittle-natalie3.jpg[/left:31dbd5c511]Natalie was born in Hospital at 10.05 p.m.; my labor only took 1½ hours as they say your second child comes out quicker. This one came quicker than I thought it would be. I had a normal pregnancy with no problems, they did not pick this birth defect up in the ultra sound that I had when I was pregnant. When Natalie was born she was the colour PURPLE. The midwife saw that she needed oxygen straight away so she cut the umbilical cord and put her straight into the crib where she was given oxygen. I went and had a shower not thinking much of this. When I came out of the shower my husband told me there was more wrong then just lack of oxygen she was breathing funny and the doctor took a chest x ray and found that she had a Diaphragmatic Hernia (an abnormal opening in the diaphragm that allows part of the abdominal organs to migrate into the chest cavity, occurring before birth.) I thought she wasn't going to survive when I heard the bad news. The Doctor called the NETTS team in so they could transfer Natalie to a Hospital that could help her. They arrived at 3am in the morning. The NETTS team worked on Natalie to stabilize her so they could transfer her to Sydney's Children's Hospital, in the mean time I tried to get some sleep. In that time, but I was to distressed and upset about my baby which I only got to hold for a brief second after I had her, and didn’t get to hold her for another 6 days. I didn’t get any sleep and when they arrived they explained the condition a bit more to me but they did not know the extent of it. After the NETTS team put little wires into her all over the place and tubes up her little nose to help her breathe. It looked very scary but it was necessary to keep her alive. I hoped that she would survive. They weighed Natalie before we left to go to Sydney Hospital; she weighed about 3.5kg. We arrived in Sydney around 7am in the morning and I hadn’t had any sleep and I was feeling very exhausted. When we arrived at the hospital I met with doctors, nurses, social workers, and the surgeon. They took x-rays and ultrasounds and all sorts of tests, so they could see the extent of the Diaphragmatic Hernia. When they were doing all the tests they also found she had a heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot (a congenital defect of the heart consisting of 4 abnormalities that results in insufficiently oxygenated blood pumped to the body). I thought she wouldn’t survive at all having this as well as the hernia. Before they could operate on her to fix the Hernia the doctors wanted her to be stabilized so things would go well when they operated on her. I was told the operation would go ahead on Saturday and I was all excited that it was going to happen and she would be better. Saturday came around and they told me not today probably tomorrow, as the doctor would like to see her a bit more stabilized so we waited another day. As she laid there, it was sad to see her with all the wires attached to her and tubes up her nose, but it was all necessary for her to stay alive. The tubes up her nose were for oxygen, and another to her stomach for gas and, they would feed her through this tube after the operation. She also had IV lines in her arms and senesces on her to monitor her breathing blood pressure, and oxygen in her blood and a couple of other ones for temperature and that. Natalie was also a few drugs to help with the pain and to keep her fluids up. The doctors Finally went ahead with the operation the next day, which was a Sunday morning, when the operation took place; it went for about 2 ½ hours. The operation went well. But they had to keep her in ICU for the next few days to see how she went after the operation. Natalie was in ICU for about three weeks all up before the doctor though she was well enough to start her on breast-feeding. They transferred to another ward so we could try and get her feeding sorted out. While she was in ICU I was expressing my milk every 4 hours for the first 3 weeks. I didn’t think I was able to breast feed her but I kept at it and we are still doing well with it she is now 9 weeks old and still on the breast on demand feeding and putting on weight. My husband and my other daughter came up to Sydney and visited Natalie and myself on the weekends. My other daughter is 3 years old and when she saw Natalie with all the wires on her she said "Natalie is broke, the doctor’s fix her up" which was sad but I think she sort of understood why Mummy was in hospital with Natalie. My mum gave Natalie a big teddy bear while she was in ICU and Rachael (Natalie's sister) named the bear after one of the nurses that looked after Natalie. I also had a few other visitors while I was there which was great support from Fam

ily and Friends. They took me out so I didn’t have to live in the hospital the whole time. Which I needed a break from it all as some times, it just got to be too much. My husband had to go home and work and look after my other daughter, which I think he handled very well under the circumstances. When we finally got to go home, we were transferred to our local hospital so that doctors could get to know her condition in case she had any other problems and also to make sure she was putting on weight and doing well. Now she is doing very well and we still have appointments to follow up on her heart condition. We went to Sydney on the 13th of April and saw the heart doctor. He told us that she would be operated on when she is about 9 to 18 months old. Hopefully there will only be one operation needed and that it all goes well. Hopefully they will be able to operate soon on her heart. It will be open-heart surgery, which I am frightened about it, but I think she will do well. Everyone tells me she will be fine. If she doesn’t get the operation it will cause to much strain on her body as she gets older and cause her not to be able to cope anymore so it’s important to get this operation done soon...

13-4-2000 We saw the heart doctor and I asked him if it will be a once off operation, he said hopefully. My husband and myself feel a bit relieved that she doesn’t have to go through a lot of operations. And if its all goes well I hope she will be able to live a normal life. She is very special .

to us. We would hate anything bad to happen to her. Natalie’s sister, Rachael, loves her to death she is always cuddling her and kissing her and playing with her but we try not to let her get to rough with her as we get worried that some thing might happen. We try not to leave her out as Natalie needs more attention than we give to Rachael ....and I feel that Rachael gets a little upset that we don’t get to spend as much time with her as we would like to. Natalie will be getting her heart operated on before Christmas this year, 2000.

Written by Natalie’s mom, Dianne Whittel (Australia)
2000