To mark World Prematurity Day (Monday 17 November), parents Hannah and Craig James have paid tribute to the dedicated staff on The Oliver Fisher Neonatal Unit for saving the life of their daughter Jemima who was born at just 23 weeks and four days.
The couple recently celebrated Jemima’s first birthday on 21 October – an emotional milestone they once feared they’d never reach. At just 20 weeks pregnant, Hannah was told she was six centimetres dilated and at high risk of losing her baby.
Hannah, 30, from New Ash Green, near Sevenoaks, said: “We were heartbroken. We’d gone from sharing our excitement with our loved ones about having a baby girl the day before to being told we were going to lose her.
“By some miracle I got through the night without going into labour. As a result, I was able to have a surgical stitch put in my cervix in the hope it would stop me from going into labour.”
But at 23 weeks Hannah was rushed back to hospital after her waters broke.
She added: “It quickly became apparent that the only way our baby would survive was if she was born at a Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), our nearest being The Oliver Fisher Neonatal Unit at Medway Maritime Hospital. The day before the unit had been full but miraculously there was a space for us the day I was transferred to the hospital.”
Two days later Jemima was born weighing just 1lb 4oz (approx. 575 grams). With no detectable heart beat a team of four resuscitated her, intubated her, then placed her in a ‘plastic bag’ on top of heat pads and under a heat lamp to help maintain her body temperature before transferring her to the neonatal unit.
“Seeing Jemima in her incubator covered in tubes and wires was heart wrenching,” Hannah said.
“We could see how hard she was having to fight and we were terrified of losing her. Thankfully the 24/7 visiting hours meant that there was no limit to the amount of time we could spend with her.”
Over the next 109 days, Jemima battled numerous complications including chronic lung disease, hypercapnia, metabolic acidosis, hypotension, renal failure, anaemia and numerous infections. The most critical condition she faced though was called bullous emphysema, a rare and life-threatening condition in which a large air-filled cyst developed in her lungs due to prolonged ventilation. The bulla grew so large it began compressing her heart and one of her lungs, leaving her unable to be transferred for specialist surgery due to her fragile condition.
Despite being very poorly Jemima defied all odds. On the day of her great-grandmother’s funeral, while fully sedated and on 100 per cent oxygen, the cyst resolved on its own.
“It really was another miracle. Even the consultants couldn’t explain how it happened,” Hannah said.
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