The tiny baby was diagnosed with four diagnoses immediately after birth.
Leo was the long-awaited firstborn of 25-year-old Amy Roberts and her husband, 26-year-old Alex. The pregnancy was proceeding well, all tests were normal. Childbirth began prematurely: the baby did not wait for the due date for only a week. His birth was incredible happiness for his parents. And the same incredible grief. It turned out that not everything is in order with the child. The baby had four (!) Congenital heart defects.
“When the doctors explained that it was with Leo, we just couldn’t believe our ears at first,” Amy says. “I blamed myself. All the time I thought, what did I do wrong, that the baby has such a sick heart. “
The doctors assured Amy that nothing depended on her here. Beating yourself up is useless, you had to do something.
The baby, although he was born quite strong – 3200 grams – immediately dropped almost a kilogram. It was impossible to operate on such a crumb. It took a week for Leo to gain some weight. Seven days later, the mother put her son in the hands of an anesthesiologist. Leo had an open heart surgery.
“I have never cried as much as I did that day. It could be that I saw Leo alive for the last time, ”Aimee recalls.
The parents were indeed warned: “Prepare for the worst.” Will a premature baby tolerate such a serious intervention? There weren’t many chances. But the risks are rife, from paralysis and spinal cord injury to stroke, infections and internal bleeding.
The operation lasted six hours. All six hours Amy did not leave the operating room door. Finally the doctor came out: “Everything went well.” When the mother was finally allowed to look at her son, she felt the earth receding from under her feet: Leo’s tiny body was completely entangled in wires. Monitors beeped, counting the child’s heart rate. Dropper needles stuck out in the little hands. The wound in the chest was covered with a special bandage – the boy caught an infection, it was not possible to sew up the chest for another week.
“This week we learned all about EKGs, blood tests, echocardiograms,” says Amy. – we knew that the child would teach us a lot. But we never thought that we would have to learn such terrible things. “
Aimee was discharged soon after. But not Leo. Amy couldn’t go home. She checked into a hotel for parents of seriously ill children, which was opposite the hospital. All day she was on duty next to the baby.
“I didn’t feel like a mom. After all, I could not take Leo in my arms, I could not feed him, ”recalls Amy.
Leo remained in the hospital for another nine weeks. During this time, the boy underwent five more operations to cope with complications and infections that arose after the first. The kid became afraid of people. He began to cry as soon as they approached him and tried to touch him. After all, every touch brought him pain: endless injections, droppers, dressings … Even tiny heels were covered with bruises – traces of injections.
When the baby was finally discharged, he was still not completely healthy. Or maybe he will never be completely healthy, his heart will need to be monitored all his life. But the parents are happy. They are confident that everything will be fine. After all, Leo fought for life like a real hero. This means that they will be able to cope with any misfortune.