My name is Carmen, and together with my husband, Mihai we have our beautiful little girl, Jessica Maria.
Due to a pre-eclampsia problem, my girl stopped developing in the womb and at 27+5 weeks I had to have an emergency c-section at Whipps Cross, my local hospital. Our baby girl was born on 19th July 2018 weighing only 954 grams.
For the first two weeks all was good. We stayed by her incubator all the time watching her progress every day as she came off the oxygen tube. But in the 3rd week of life she became very ill, vomiting green stuff , not eating and not pooping. She was put on antibiotics. The staff at Whipps Cross diagnosed NEC. Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is very serious as the tissue in the bowel becomes inflamed and it can cause parts of the bowel to become so damaged that tissue within it dies. It can affect babies in the first days and weeks after birth but is more common in premature babies, especially those born before 32 weeks,
Because Jesica’s condition was so serious they decided to move us to St George’s hospital to give her the best possible chance of survival. We arrived at St George’s in the middle of the night and they immediately started her on 3 types of antibiotics. Slowly, slowly she was feeling better but it was a real rollercoaster time with many setbacks.
We ended up staying in St George’s for hospital for 6 weeks as Jessica developed NEC a second time and suspected sepsis.Thankfully she didn’t need any surgery, and she didn’t have any other complications In all that time we were so well cared for. The nurses and doctors always explained everything until I was sure I understood. I don’t know if I will ever be able to thank them enough for all their support.
Today Jessica is a happy and healthy girl and we are so grateful to everyone for this.
