Special twins return to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

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Press Releases 2010

Written by Communications Team

Thursday, 14 January 2010 09:39

Twins, who have just celebrated their second birthday, have paid a visit to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where their lives were saved, and brought with them a very special gift. Their nine-year-old cousin visited the unit with them and presented £440 to the unit’s Early Births Fund, which she raised through selling her craftwork.

Emily Maya and Carys Hannah Barnard were born unexpectedly at 25 weeks gestation on 31st December 2007. Emily weighed 762 grams (1lb 11oz) and Carys just 692 grams (1lb 8oz). The girls were rushed into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit NICU at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey.

Said their mother Sallyan (Sallyan): “Both girls were ventilated straight away. Emily came off within 24 hours however Carys remained on it for over 2 weeks. I was able to hold Emily for the first time two days after she was born but Carys wasn’t stable enough for 10 days. During their time in NICU both girls had frequent Apnoeas and Bradycardias where they would forget to breathe and require resuscitation. One was so severe Carys required heart massage to revive her. Both girls had gastro-oesophageal reflux which required medication and thickened feeds.”

In addition, they also underwent several blood transfusions and recovered from numerous serious infections, some affecting their ability to breathe forcing them to be re-ventilated. Consequently Carys was diagnosed as having chronic lung disease. Her immature lungs produced secretions that clogged-up her throat and nose preventing her from breathing normally. Her oxygen requirement soared until the decision was made by her parents and the doctors to give steroids to help reduce the inflammation. This meant she could finally come off the ventilator, although she still required additional oxygen via a nasal cannula.

After two-and-a-half months both girls were out of Intensive Care and in the hospital’s Special Care facility. Emily finally went home to Windlesham with Sallyan and Dad Julian on the 10th April 2008, two days before her actual due date weighing 2.26 kilos (4lbs 15oz).

Said Sallyan: “It was extremely hard, going home with one baby and leaving one behind, but we soon got used to it.”

Carys finally made it home on oxygen on the 5th May 2008. She weighed 3.062 kilos (6lbs 11oz). Unfortunately, Carys’s oxygen requirements increased once she got her home and she remained on home oxygen until the end of April 2009.

Said Sallyan: “It has been a hard couple of years, and a real rollercoaster of emotions but the girls are now like any other child their age. We are very fortunate considering their start in life, however the outcome could have been very different if it wasn’t for Emily and Carys’s determination to survive and the excellent skill and professional care of all the NICU staff at St. Peter’s. It is for this reason that we have raised money for the Early Births Fund, a charity set-up to raise money for specialist equipment and care for the neo-natal unit at St Peter’s Hospital.”

One fund raising venture has been by the twin’s nine-year-old cousin, Gabriella McErlain who has for the past six months been making bookmarks and cards for her friends and family to buy to raise money. Gabriella, who lives about 50 minutes away from her cousins in Worminghall, near Oxford has always loved making craft things and decided on bookmarks as something saleable and useful. She set her sights on raising £100 for the twins’s charity. During the summer, she told their Dad (her Uncle) the plan, and he promised to double the final sum if she reached her goal. Her father also offered to double whatever she raised, so she unexpectedly had Gabriella had her target raised to £400!

In the first week of December 2009 she passed the £100 mark and reached £110, which with her father’s and Uncle’s amounts brings the total to her charitable contribution to £440.

Gabriella said: “I wanted to help other babies like my cousins who now are like every normal little girl. Without the unit, and help of the doctors and nurses they may not have been here today.”

Ashford and St Peters Hospitals NHS Trust

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