On Friday 13th October 2006 our 4 day old son, Kai went back into Russells Hall Hospital for what we thought was a routine fattening up after a slow start to feeding. On admission, the nurse who saw him, took a pulse, a blood pressure reading and then an oxygen saturation level. The first response was the probe was broke, a second probe confirmed that his oxygen levels were at just over 40%.. which is just over 40% or so of what they should be. The situation was critical. An ultrasound in Dudley was brought to a halt with "There's nothing we can do for him here", an explanation that a specialist heart unit was needed and that an ambulance would be made ready immediately.

He was rushed to Birmingham Children's Hospital under the blue lights. His SATS had dropped to 40 by the time we arrived. He was taken for an assessment and straight to the operating theatre where a catheter was placed in his heart to keep him alive. 

Kai had a condition known as transposition of the great arteries. A relatively rare congenital condition that wasn't looked for antenatally at that time. A small duct joins the two main arteries, which closes shortly after birth. Kai's was closing and without us knowing, he'd been slowly shutting  down since birth.

The hole in his heart stabilised his situation and on the Tuesday, after some amazing care in ICU, Kai was taken back into theatre for open heart surgery. A complex coronary artery pattern meant he spent 2 hours longer than scheduled in theatre, but he came through, albeit with some additional pulmonary wall damage, that would later need close management and monitoring, plus a small army of drugs.

We spent almost fortnight at his bed side in the specialist heart ward (ward 11) at BCH watching what was an amazing recovery - bathing and changing him from an unconscious state until we finally got back the baby we thought we'd had on October the 9th, albeit with a few more scars and a little bit taller.

Kai's care has continued since and we're rapidly approaching his 8th  birthday. He's grown into an intelligent, loving and engaged young boy - he runs, he jumps, he shouts, he plays football, he climbs, he rides. he's amazing. They're all amazing, but he only got his chance to be amazing because of the fast reactions in the first line care at Dudley (for which we are eternally grateful) and the spectacular job that the team at BCH did and continue to do to this day.

So this stupid challenge is my was of saying thanks to BCU and putting back a little of the effort that the surgeons, consultants, ICU team and ward 11 do day in, day out. Not only do they work tirelessly and diligently, they do so with the utmost compassion and humour. They saved our son and they were a rock to us. Nothing we could ever do could repay that debt, but I can at least say thanks in my own little way.