My husband, Neil, and I had a beautiful and perfectly healthy baby girl called Emma Kate Braddy on 11 May 2007. Tragically she died on 1 July following a terrible struggle with a rare virus that attacked her heart.

Emma was cared for on the Cardiac Critical Care Unit (CCC4) at GOSH for five weeks. Three of these weeks were spent on ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) which bypassed her heart and lungs to give them time to rest. Although she did well on ECMO she was very weak and soon after she came off the machine she contracted a fungal infection that overwhelmed and ultimately killed her.

Although our story has a tragic end we are indebted to the doctors and nurses of CCC4 who cared for our daughter with skill, kindness and unyielding determination. We had five precious weeks with Emma that we would not have had without ECMO. In this time we were also given the diagnosis which would have been very difficult had she died before she reached GOSH. As a result of the care and attention she was given we have been left with none of the “what ifs” that many people who lose a child have to deal with. We know in our hearts that everything possible was done to save our daughter and this has been a daily comfort to us through these past very difficult months and it is something that we will always be grateful for.

ECMO costs a large amount of money every day and requires two highly trained nurses per patient. The Critical Care Unit itself is highly specialised and always pushed for funds. Although Emma died we saw many babies come on to the unit at deaths door only to spend a few days on ECMO and leave totally different children. It is difficult to express the relief and gratitude that we saw in their parents and it was wonderful to see these families go home together having been spared the grief that we have suffered.