St Marys Manchester
Imogen arrived at St. Mary’s in a desperately poorly condition. She looked a helpless little bundle but she put up amazing courage. Unknown to us was just how poorly she was but we kept up our hopes. Imogen was hooked up to various monitors, a high frequency ventilator and a nitric oxide machine, quite a daunting sight. She was totally knocked out and in the hands of the doctors and nurses. It was probably at this point that we really did need a favour. In times of need and desperation, the prayers began…many. Never before had we seen intensive care at first hand and I can honestly say it was intensive. Every last blood sample was logged and recorded by the nurses.

It was a difficult decision just to go to bed that night not knowing what we might wake up to but we were reassured that any developments would result in us being woken. Sleeping that night was no easy task, what with our situation and the lumpy “put me up bed”, but we were grateful that we could both be at hand. Somehow, we managed to drop off and during the night we were woken by Dr. McKinnon the anaesthetist who was overseeing Imogen’s care. Fearing the worst, he advised us that she was incredibly poorly and asked us what we were expecting prior to Lindsey giving birth. We told him we were advised that chances of survival were about 40%. To our horror, he said that she barely had double figures in terms of percentage. This was hard to take in but we were thankful of his frank talking and is probably better than giving us false hope.

The following day, waking very early after very little sleep, I made my way to the unit in trepidation. In one way seeing her still there in her condition was such relief. It was by now that we were beginning to understand her figures on the monitors; oxygen saturations, blood pressure and heart rate. Figures that we would live and breathe for some time to come. There our little girl lay, still looking ever so frail but still with us. This was to turn out to be a very long day but in some strange way we still had the feeling of being joyous just having her.