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Mother saves premature baby son:
Kiss of life after he stops breathing in intensive care
26, May ,BBC
A mother has told how she gave her premature baby the kiss of life
when he stopped breathing in an intensive care unit.Pippa Reed, pumped
air into the lungs of 12-week-old Jacob after he stopped breathing while
under sedation.'Within 15 or 20 minutes of him being sedated he almost
stopped breathing and his lips went blue,' the 25-year-old said.
'I gave him the kiss of life. It was an immediate reaction. My little
boy needed help and I had air in my lungs and just gave it to him.'I
knew what I had to do and I did it.
If I had not it would probably have been worse.'Mrs Reed, a former St
John Ambulance member, sprang to assist Jacob when he got into trouble
after being prepared for an MRI scan intended to check his brain
function at Queens Hospital in Burton, Staffordshire.
Nurses rushed to prepare emergency care and alerted the crash team
before one gave the newborn oxygen.Jacob eventually returned to the
children's ward after being stabilised but has since been plagued by
falling oxygen levels and poor breathing.
He is now receiving antibiotics for a slight chest infection and is
being closely monitored in an oxygen-filled incubator in the neonatal
ward.'I'm heartbroken it's happened but with time he will get better, I
know he will,' said Mrs Reed from Stretton, Staffordshire.'It's just a
mother's intuition.
I can't put my finger on it.'Jacob has continually defied the odds
since he was born on February 29 at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. He
was 12 weeks early and weighed just 2lb 10.5oz and was given a lowly
three per cent chance of survival.
But Jacob has clung to life, amazing those around him by defying a
seemingly endless series of life-threatening health problems.
'That such a little person can go through all this and still fight on
is incredible,' said Mrs Reed, who has learned to cope with adversity on
an almost a daily basis.
'It's very hard, but this is how my life is at the moment.'Jacob was
then transferred to Birmingham Children's Hospital before being moved to
Burton's Queen's Hospital on April 12.
He now weighs 5lb 9oz and has an umbilical hernia that will need to
be treated. He also has liver problems.
Mrs Reed has had to cope with this week's trauma on her own because
her husband, Tim, 32, has been suffering a cold, an infection which
prevents him from seeing his son.'Even more has been on me,' said Mrs
Reed, 'but as long as my men get better that's all that matters.' |
