On 12 March 2018, my identical twin boys, Eoghan and Logan were born at 34 weeks old. Unfortunately, this was not the easiest of births. After being in hospital for almost 24 hours in labour, my partner Jessica was rushed in for an emergency C section.

Eoghan struggled with the delivery, and was born with no life. After being pronounced a still born after 15 minutes of the doctors doing everything in their power to bring him to life, (just to add, text book suggests that after 10 minutes, a baby is declared a still born), he was still showing no signs of life. After 18 minutes, miraculously, and I genuinely mean miraculously, he showed some signs of life.

Following this, he was quickly put on a life support machine and had numerous scans, all of which showed brain seizures that had caused ‘severe’ brain injury. Eoghan was in a critical state, and the hospital wasted no time bringing in a charity called ‘Ants’ to provide him with every little bit of support to keep him alive and to transport him to Luton and Dunstable hospital.

Luton and Dunstable hospital offer a ‘cooling process’ which prevents any further / secondary injury to the brain for new born babies after they have been deprived of oxygen for a long period of time. Usually, a baby would have to be 36 weeks old for them to offer this type of treatment. However, on this occasion, they said that they would take Eoghan in and put him in their high priority neonatal suite.

During the first two days whilst on the life support and high volumes of morphine he was prescribed, he was only able to take about 1 breath a minute by himself.  But after two days in the cooling room, he was more or less breathing for himself. Although still in a critical state, he was improving on a daily basis.

Eoghan’s first scan showed that he would have severe cerebral palsy. However, towards the end of his course at Luton and Dunstable another scan was performed on him. It showed that he would only have a high chance of having mild Diapeliga (A type of cerebral palsy that affects one leg). This was definitely the best news I have ever heard knowing my son would not only be alive, but will be capable of living an independent life.

Luton and Dunstable hospital were amazing. They saved Eoghan’s life against all the odds. I am ecstatic to say that Eoghan isn’t only walking now at 16 months, but is walking normally. He is a very intelligent, cheeky and happy boy with so much love.

Luton and Dunstable hospital were not only amazing for Eoghan but for me and Jessica too. They made Jessica a birthday card from Eoghan and Logan when they found out it was her birthday the day after they were born.  They were constantly trying to make life as easy as possible for us and letting us visit after hours because they knew we were seeing Logan in Broomfield and Eoghan in Luton on a daily basis.

Me and a few of my mates want to raise money for the hospital by walking from Broomfield hospital in Chelmsford to the Luton and Dunstable hospital in Luton (49 miles). This is the trip that Eoghan made via the Ants charity on the hour of his birth. Please donate to a charity that go above and beyond every day.