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I am raising money for the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) of the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel London.  I gave birth 16 weeks early to my son Ethan.  He was born 23/10/2009 weighing a mere 1lb 11oz!

When I gave birth to Ethan I was seriously ill and was in intensive care, I could not see Ethan for 4 days, 4 days I can never get back but yet the doctors and nurses took great care of him and of course me.  We both should not be here and would not be here if it was not for the doctors.

Ethan has faced many problems starting with bleed on his lungs and his head at birth.  His lungs are now very bad and he was ventilated for 11 weeks, he is now managing to breath by himself though is reliant on oxygen.  He has had an almost constant bout of infections, the worst being in his Tummy which gave him the super bug called NEC.  This meant his bowel was blocked and he has had to have a large part of it removed. For 8 weeks he had to have a stoma which means he had a hole in his tummy which a section of his bowel poked out of.  The "output" of this was collected in a bag on his tummy.  This has now been reversed which I am pleased about as the bag kept leaking! Because he was born so early he did not get any calcium from me and so his bones are weak, he has managed to break his leg just by kicking and his ribs.  Hopefully with treatment his bones will get better.

He is now back to our local hospital - which means a step closer to home, though he had to go back to london for surgery on two hernia's, then in April 2010 he had a collapase which meant he had to be reventilated and we were sen to Great Ormond Street hospital.  The doctors there did a wonderful job and Ethan once again surprised them and made a nice recovery!  That was not before having to have the worst conversations of my life three times!  He was there for about 6 weeks before going back to local hospital. 

 

***** Update May 2011 - Ethan did come home (after going back to ITU once more) in August 2010. However he returned back to ITU three more times - the last being in December 2010.  Thankfully he had an operation to stop the contents of his stomach coming back up and entering his lungs, and since then he has grown! Most importantly he has stayed out of hospital and has even coped with his first cold or two!  He is still on oxygen and is tube fed, but we are getting there!  A real life miracle and my inspiration.  You can read his story in detail on www.born16weeksearly.weebly.com.

The doctors and nurses that care for Ethan are fantastic, they have never given up on him, even when things looked awful for a time. 

I am not a surgeon, a nurse or a doctor so I cant operate on him or do any medical procedures.  I can help raise money for the department so that they can get things to help make their lives easier and the babies a lot more comfortable.

There are so many miracle babies still being cared for by Royal London, including Ethan's friend Angelina who was born weighing just 1lb 3oz and is still fighting on.  This page is dedicated to Angelina, Ethan and all of the other miracle babies.

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