A baby boy had his life saved hundreds of times by hospital staff during the first 13 weeks of his life.
Born
14 weeks early, Dominic Willis had a severe form of apnoea of
prematurity which caused him to stop breathing as often as six times
every day.
His parents
Roy Willis, 32, and Rachel Thompson, 26, from Billingham, County
Durham, had to watch nurses desperately try to restart his breathing
every time.
Dominic Willis was born 14 weeks early and
developed a severe form of apnoea of prematurity which caused him to
stop breathing up to six times every day. But now the nine-month-old is a
happy, healthy baby and doctors have confirmed that he has grown out of
the condition
Now, Dominic is nine-months-old and is a happy, healthy baby and doctors have confirmed that he has grown out of the condition.
Support
worker Mr Willis said: ‘To me, as soon as it happened I was preparing
for doctors to tell me he wasn’t going to wake up the next time.
Every day I woke up thinking: “This could be the day”, it felt like a time bomb ready to go off and destroy my world.
‘I could feel it in the pit of my stomach and I never really allowed myself to believe that he would survive.
Apnoea of prematurity occurs when the central
nervous system is not yet mature enough to allow non-stop breathing.
Baby Dominic had to wear a special breathing device to make sure he had a
constant supply of oxygen
This causes large bursts of breath followed by periods of shallow
breathing or no breathing.
Dominic¿s condition was particularly severe and the apnoeas were more
common and longer than in other cases.
He had an apnoea at least twice a
day, and up to six times a day, for 13 weeks. There wasn’t a day that
went by that he didn’t stop breathing.
‘The staff stopped our son from dying over and over again. Nothing we can do will ever be enough to say thank you.’
Ms
Thompson went into labour with Dominic 14 weeks before her due date. He
was born at Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital.
Apnoea of prematurity occurs when the central nervous system is not yet mature enough to allow non-stop breathing.
This causes large bursts of breath followed by periods of shallow breathing or no breathing.
Dominic’s condition was particularly severe and the apnoeas were more common and longer than in other cases.
Nail technician Ms Thompson said:
‘The first few weeks were a blur, we tried remain positive and did not
speak of what could happen to Dominic.
‘We went to the hospital every day but I was only allowed to hold him once or twice a week.
‘We sat by the incubator, tortured that we could see him but not hold him.
Dominic's mother, Rachel Thompson (pictured with
partner Roy Willis), said: ¿The first few weeks were a blur, we tried
remain positive and did not speak of what could happen to Dominic. We
went to the hospital every day but I was only allowed to hold him once
or twice a week'
‘At first the apnoeas were very scary, but we did start to get used to them.
‘To
me it was like he hadn’t been born yet. Instead of being in my womb, he
was in the incubator and that would look after him until he was ready
to be born properly.’
Dominic’s worst apnoea occurred during one of the parents’ visits to the hospital.
Mr Willis said: ‘He was in Rachel’s arms when he stopped breathing and the monitors went mad.
‘I watched him go more and more blue.
‘The first step is to shake him a bit and rub him gently to see if that gets him going. Then they tilted his head back.
‘After that they tried that they had to put him on oxygen. It goes through a mask over his face.
‘We
had to stand and watch as they worked on our baby. They were trying
everything. I was thinking my baby boy was leaving us right then.
‘I don’t know how they managed to pull him through but they did.’
It was 13 weeks before the couple were allowed to take Dominic home.
They are now fundraising for a new incubator for the hospital that cared for Dominic.
To donate go to www.justgiving.com/Roy-Willis or text DOM50 followed by the amount in pounds to 70070.
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