14th October 2022

With the love and mercy of God and the angelic work of our surgeon Dr. Guido Michielon, nurses and doctors, along with the kindness, prayers, and support contributed by everyone, Baby Dorothea has been granted a miracle. She is alive, she is joyful, and truly amazing, living up to her name... Dorothea is a gift from God.

The battle is far from over. Baby Dorothea needs a very complex open heart surgery to keep this miracle alive, which we will detail at the end. But first, this is our story in full:

Four months ago, pre-diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (missing the left side of the heart!), we faced a catastrophic birth riddled with complications. Dorothea faced a 5-20% chance of survival at birth. We needed $3.2 million to get to the US for in utero intervention to have any chance of survival.

We fell well short of our fundraising target, with very little time left and no hospital or surgeon willing to face this monster of a surgery to save Dorothea's life at no cost.

Distraught and devastated, facing the prospect of losing our baby, a voice told us to fight on and not give up, to look for a solution closer to home. I was reluctant since we had already exhausted our options, but this voice was loud and adamant, so I appeased it. To our disbelief, we stumbled upon a Facebook post by families that were praising and honoring Guido Michielon, an Italian UK surgeon. We were astonished that he had tremendous expertise in the Norwood surgery and complex, against-all-odds, mission-impossible surgeries. We had a Zoom call and pleaded for help to save Dorothea's life. Dr. Guido quickly sent us to the wonderful Professor Carvalho, a neonatal cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital. With a full picture of the complexity and extremely high-risk surgery, he agreed to help and could do it via the NHS at no cost.

Thanks to your contributions and the help of the Tree of Hope, we were able to relocate our family to London, within blocks of the Royal Brompton Hospital, embark on this journey, and be there every step of the way with Baby Dorothea. On July 7th, 2022, at 7 am, full of love and faith, we were checked in to Chelsea Westminster Hospital for the planned birth of Baby Dorothea.

Baby Dorothea was expected to be very unwell at birth, with flooded lungs and unable to breathe. The Royal Brompton sent a team of heart surgeons led by Professor Fraisse to be present at the birth, ready to perform emergency surgery to stabilize Baby Dorothea before transport to the Royal Brompton Hospital.

As we prepared for the birth, we were scared. I had a flood of never-ending tears, but Zofia was brave and demonstrated the strength of armies. We prayed, held each other close, and pleaded for a miracle.

As the surgeons started the C-section, a platoon of surgeons and nurses were at the ready to resuscitate and operate on her heart to stabilize Baby Dorothea. As I heard "OK, here we go, pulling baby out," I peeked over the curtain and saw Baby Dorothea, heard a small cry, and saw a full head of hair. I just yelled in excitement. Zofia started calling out Dorothea’s name, and we chanted words of support and strength, telling her we loved her as she was being examined by the heart surgeons. They worked furiously, placing a mask on her, weighing her, and doing an echo scan of her heart. Surgeons gathered around a screen, with nurses and doctors exchanging orders and information, working over our daughter. As planned, I barged in with the hospital priest, and while Zofia was still being closed up by surgeons, we witnessed Baby Dorothea being baptized while being scanned by the surgeon. I could see the lead surgeon scratching his head and doctors talking. There still was no surgery taking place, and we feared the worst. Eventually, Professor Fraisse walked over to us... he was confused. He could not understand why or how, but there were three, potentially four, new veins draining the lungs. Baby Dorothea's anatomy had changed, and there was no need to perform emergency heart surgery to stabilize her. She was rushed to the ICU unit, where she was stabilized and later transferred to the PICU unit at the Royal Brompton Hospital by the CATS ambulance.

We had five wonderful days and nights with Dorothea at PICU. We enjoyed every second together in lieu of the surgery that was to come. We just focused on love and faith, placing small statues of Lourdes, Fatima, Pope John Paul II, and prayer cards.

On the 12th of July, on the eve of her Norwood surgery, we were called to a meeting with the hospital executives and the surgeon. What we thought was a meeting to discuss the surgery was, to our shock, a meeting to inform us that Dorothea's surgery was canceled. The risk was too high, over 75%, and that there was nothing that could be done. We should consider compassionate care, palliative care, pulling her medication and air, and letting her pass away. Our surgeon still believed he could help, but he did not have the support from the wider Evelina team (Evelina Hospital had acquired the Royal Brompton) to get approval for the surgery. We pleaded with the executives to please consider the power of love and the possibility of a miracle, but to no avail.

There was no way we were going to give up. We had fought this hard, and now, holding our baby in our arms, we were not going to let her go— not without a fight. Angry, sad, and in shock, with the support of friends and family, we vowed to fight, not give up. We could not fathom letting Baby Dorothea die. We began calling and emailing lawyers and human rights activists. That evening, we received a call from Mr. Yogi Amin, a solicitor and human rights activist who quickly jumped to action, sending letters to the hospital and doctors while preparing barristers to go to court seeking an order from a judge to proceed with the surgery. By 1 pm the following day, the hospital called for a meeting where surgery was agreed to proceed, but we were warned of the extremely high mortality rate and were asked to sign a disclosure of a long list of severe, life-altering conditions and risks that Baby Dorothea would almost surely face.

Like all other nights, we spent the night by Dorothea's side. When dawn reached, we expressed to her our excitement for this special day, the day she would receive a "new Ferrari engine" in her heart. We laughed and loved her, detailing all the fun we still hoped to have with her throughout her life. She was aware. She made deep eye contact, loved every second of her cuddles, and was always grasping our fingers, always looking at us and smiling. She felt loved.

Dorothea's surgery lasted all day, and it felt like an eternity. Around 3:30 pm, we were happy that we had not received a call telling us something went wrong, but we could no longer wait. We called the intensive care unit and asked if they had heard from the surgical team. We screamed in delight and cried tears of joy when we heard that her surgery was successful, her heart was working, she was stable, and she was getting ready to be transported to ICU.

There was not a dry eye in the intensive care unit as we ran in. Nurses embraced us in tears and joy. Dr. Guido was very emotional and overjoyed as he shared the success of the surgery and his amazement. We were quickly led to her bedside, and among a team of people still working on Dorothea, we embraced her in tears and joy, beyond ourselves.

Within five minutes, everything changed. A doctor started trying to stimulate Dorothea's hand and called her name. Alarms started sounding from monitors, and red lights flashed when a doctor yelled, "Cardiac arrest!" A wall alarm was sounded, and a siren went off in the ICU. An army of doctors and nurses flooded the room. We were rushed away into an empty room, confused, in shock, and completely lost for words. Within minutes, a senior nurse informed us that Dorothea's heart had stopped, and they were trying to resuscitate her. They would keep us updated. Fifteen minutes passed, and again we were told her heart was still not working; they were still doing CPR. Fifteen minutes later, no change. Forty-five minutes passed, and there were no more updates. Zofia and I held our faith. In our initial silence, we both simultaneously made peace with God. If seven days were all the time that God would allow us with Dorothea, they were the best seven days of our lives. But we prayed for a miracle. We prayed for God to give us a lifetime with our beautiful daughter. We had faith, and we would not let go. After one hour and five minutes, a nurse walked in and told us they had been able to resuscitate Dorothea. She was placed on an ECMO machine, a giant bypass-type machine that did all the work for the heart, and a ventilator. Our miracle was granted. Dorothea was alive. We were warned it was a huge step back, and she faced a huge possibility of brain damage and other life-critical complications. We ignored that; we were happy she was alive.

Dorothea was on ECMO for five days, not only with full brain activity but with her eyes wide open, making perfect eye contact, moving her head, and just watching us. We had many visitors. We were so blessed with love and prayers. Dorothea was so loved that she was well on her way to recovery. After one month, she was off the ECMO machine, and a second surgery was done to put in the Fontan circuit. After two months, she was given the all-clear, and we were allowed to return home.

This entire journey has been a miracle—a true act of divine intervention and love. Dorothea, you will always have the love and prayers of your family. Thank you all for supporting our family, our mission, and giving us the hope and strength to fight for our daughter's life.

Thank you for everything. Please keep praying for Baby Dorothea.

7.5% of all donations to Tree of Hope in relation to this appeal will be allocated to the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope to cover our core operating costs.

If we raise insufficient funds, or surplus funds, then the funds will be used, if appropriate, to fund support for our child’s needs in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objects. If in those circumstances we are unable to use all or part of the funds for the benefit of our child in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objectives, then any funds that cannot be used will be transferred to be used for the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope.