Chelsea's Story

Having 2 girls already, we were pleasantly surprised to find out our 3rd planned pregnancy was twins, and yes, 2 more girls! Our world soon began tumbling down when one of our twins was diagnosed with a very complex set of heart defects, at my 26 week ultrasound.

We were told her heart condition was severe and reasonably complex. I recall thinking this was a whole lot of things for one tiny little baby to deal with. Finally the day came for the twins to be born. Amelia was born first at 2.2kgs and our little heart baby Chelsea arriving two minutes later at 2.1kgs. She was reasonably blue, but we expected that to be the case.

Chelsea was on the small side for heart surgery and complications started. There were so many mixed feelings about that time. Chelsea was sent to Melbourne for Heart Surgery. That was the darkest few hours of our lives - we had no idea whether our beautiful daughter, would ever wake up and come out of heart surgery alive.

When we went in to see Chelsea after what seemed like an eternity, she looked almost unrecognisable. Her face was bloated, swollen and bruised. Her chest was still open with a wound drain hanging out. I was overwhelmed to see so many lines hanging out of her little arms and feet, along with numerous beeping machines and monitors including the ventilation unit.

Chelsea has experienced a number of battles in the months following her surgery, not only with the heart but other complications including a severe infection of the bowel requiring surgery.

Chelsea was soon transferred out of intensive care into the ward and eventually, on day 65, we were able to bring our baby girl home for the first time. It was a magical day, particularly for our older girls who were desperate for our whole family to be together again.

After nine months of regular visits to Cardiology Clinic, we were referred to Melbourne once again for further surgery. A lengthy bypass surgery was performed, little Chelsea didn't respond as well as everyone would have liked. Her heart, whilst repaired, was not functioning well. As a result they decided to re-open her chest to take some of the pressure off! Oh not again!

Over the next few weeks, Chelsea made a few baby steps forward and finally came home to her family in Adelaide For the moment, she is home and we are ready to celebrate life for a while! *It's difficult to describe how emotional, stressful and heart-wrenching our journey has been this year, for our whole family. The journey has come at a huge cost to Jeff and me, both emotionally and financially.

More than any of that, our darling Chelsea has had to endure so much to her tiny little body. It inspires, amazes me and overwhelms me how "Heart kids" get through these immense ordeals.

For the full story, visit www.heartkids.org.au