Featured cherub of the week is CDH survivor Lucy Marlow. Lucy’s mom Sarah had this to share about her daughter:
“Were do I start, Lucy was born on the 22/12/13, weighing 6lb 7oz, born in Ireland Dublin, everything was great and we went home the next day. A couple of days later, Lucy wasn’t feeding, and would cry really strongly, we brought her to the doctor and they said she was okay, she had thrush in her mouth. Within 2 days, Lucy was still no better, so we went to our emergency dept and Lucy was seen to and they said she was okay, she had a little bit of thrush and gave us a cream for her. We went home.
Lucy was only 3 weeks old, slept all night and never cried during the time we got home. I knew something was wrong. My neighbour came to visit and I had a quick shower while they watched over Lucy. When I came back into the room, I noticed Lucy had gone very grey/blue. I went straight back to our emergency dept and the nurse took Lucy straight off me and said why she always this colour. I said we were here last night and you sent me home. It took a complete stranger to look at Lucy and notice that there was something wrong. They ordered an emergency x-ray and tests. I did not recognise my child lying on the bed. There was so many doctors around her I just froze. All I could hear was it looks like CDH. I did not now what they were saying. Lucy was put straight into ICU as she couldn’t breath properly, her oxygen and sats were so low that they said the next 12 hours were critical.
Lucy underwent so many tests that they discovered Lucy was a undiagnosed left side CDH baby. They said she was a miracle to survive 3 weeks on her own. Her left lung was completely squashed by her other organs. Lucy had good days and bad days. It was a couple of days before Lucy was strong enough for surgery. She went for her surgery and they said it was a 50/50 survival rate as she was very weak. Lucy pulled through and spent another couple of weeks in ICU. I can now say that it was the hardest couple of months of our lives.
Lucy is now 6 years of age and fit and healthy as a normal child. Don’t get me wrong, when she gets a cold, etc, sometimes she can struggle to shift it and she becomes so tired. She has had her appendix removed and now waiting to have her tonsils removed. She loves hip hop dancing and apart from that she is doing really well.”
