It was impossible to understand that something was wrong with the baby. Even the doctors did not notice a serious illness in the child.
Hannah Pearl was really looking forward to when her girls would finally be born: an ultrasound scan showed that twins would be born. Hannah’s husband and eldest son were waiting for the event. Hour X has come at the 37th week of pregnancy. The planned cesarean went well, the mother felt well, both girls were absolutely healthy. Unless Madison, one of the sisters, had small noises in her heart. “There is nothing to worry about,” the doctors reassured my mother. No one could have imagined that literally in a week the baby would need a serious operation.
Indeed, heart murmurs in newborns are recorded quite often. In most cases, they are caused by minor pathologies that do not require serious intervention. But just in case, the mother was told to come to the hospital in two weeks to examine the baby in more detail. Or even earlier, if suddenly the girl does not wake up to feed or becomes lethargic.
Hannah did not notice anything of the kind: Madison regularly woke up to eat, was as active as her sister Sophie. But literally a couple of days later, my mother noticed a strange thing: if Sophie sucked her bottle of milk dry in a matter of minutes, then Madison ate very slowly.
“I thought maybe the bottle didn’t fit her. Or she has problems with the sucking reflex, ”my mother recalls in a conversation with .
Hannah decided that it was better to play it safe and show the girl to the doctor. And she did the right thing. It turned out that Madison was doing really badly.
“I was asked if she was breathing normally. But I did not notice anything strange, except that Madi eats more slowly than her sister. I didn’t pay attention to anything else, ”Hannah says.
The next six days were a nightmare for the family. Madi needed heart surgery. The day before her, the girl was not allowed to eat. Hardly anyone can imagine what it is like to starve a child who is just one week old. “We all cried,” the woman is now ready to burst into tears. But the worst thing is that Madi’s operation did not help. At seven weeks old, the baby was again on the surgeon’s table.
After the operation, the girl was transferred to intensive care. Her tiny body was completely entangled in wires and sensors. Of course, there was no question of returning home. “We were allowed to put Sophie next to her sister. We thought it would be easier for Madi, ”Hannah says. The girls lay, holding hands, head to head – just as they were used to in their mother’s belly.
A week later, Madison suffered a lung collapse. Tormented by operations, the baby was given another one – already on the diaphragm. But the baby turned out to be a real fighter: despite so much pain, she endured everything. I got out. True, it is difficult for a girl to catch up with her healthy sister: “Madi’s legs were like sticks. She only recently began to crawl, and in fact they are already a year old. But I think she can handle it, ”the girls’ mother is sure.
Hannah says that her daughters, although they are like two drops of water, are completely different in character. “Madi is very brave. And very attached to her sister. She would never go to bed if Sophie was not around. I think this is due to the fact that they were together even in the hospital, after all these operations, ”says Hannah.
The mother of the little ones still recalls the events of a year ago with a shudder. Just think, if Madison didn’t have a sister, then no one would have realized that something was wrong with the girl. “I didn’t know what to pay attention to: breathing, heartbeat, movement. Nobody told us this. But when you become a mother, you simply have to know everything about your child to the smallest detail. “