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Seraphina was born a healthy 7lb 11oz in September 2015 but it became clear to me that something was wrong when she had problems feeding. Despite a readmission to hospital at 5 days old, all the professionals kept telling us she was OK. But at 11 days old - she was so breathless that the doctor sent us to A&E. We carried her in and they took her obs straight away.

The rest is all such a blur to us but I remember them saying she had no femoral pulse and saying she needed to go to resus. They put an oxygen mask on her and we had to stand aside to let them work. More and more people kept coming into the room and I knew whatever was happening was bad. They asked if we wanted to leave the room while they drilled into her leg bones to see if they could get a line in - I didn't want to leave her but eventually we had to. 

We were told later she'd 'crashed' but all we knew was that she was going to intensive care. I was just glad she was still fighting. Then they told us her life was at risk because the acid levels in her blood were so high. They didn't know why but eventually she was diagnosed with enteroviral myocarditis. Just a common virus she'd got somehow but with a very rare complication. Her heart was so swollen it couldn't pump properly and they didn't know if she'd recover.

The inflammation of her heart caused ventricular tachycardia and she suffered an attack just a few days after she'd been admitted. I thought we'd lost her but the doctors and nurses in PICU saved her. She stabilised but her heart got worse. Her cardiologist thought she should go on the transplant list but there were no beds in the transplant centres to take her. We prepared for the worst but her consultant wouldn't give up on her and told us that she'd get better. 

And thankfully she was right. Seraphina was christened and turned the corner a day or two later. We still can't believe how far she has come but we know that without the A&E resus team and the PICU team that she wouldn't be here now. 

We are raising money for the Children's Heart  Surgery Fund because they not only give back to PICU and Eckersley House (the Sick Children's Trust where we stayed) but they also supported us so much whilst we were in intensive care and also on ward L51. They do such a good job of supporting all the families of the children there. We'd like to thank CHSF and ward L51, Eckersley House, Revd Brian, and of course all the A&E and PICU staff who saved Seraphina. 

Also a huge thank you to all our friends for all their help and support. I know how hard it must have been for some of you and we will never forget just how lucky we are xxx

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