The story of Lewis:
Lewis was born on August 5th 2001, he was our fourth child. At 5 days old Lewis collapsed & we were rushed by blue light to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital Special Baby Care. Lewis's whole body had gone into total shutdown, he was transferred to Birmingham Children's Intensive Care Unit, it was here we were told he had a condition known as Hypo-Plastic Left Heart Syndrome, this basically means the left hand side of his heart was underdeveloped.
He suffered a mini stroke, and at ten days old underwent the first of three stages of major open heart surgery. He remained on I.T.U, caught the MRSA Virus and was extremely sick. He had his second stage of surgery at just three months old, three to four months earlier than children with this condition generally have it. In December 2001, Lewis was transferred onto a ward, to spend his first ever Christmas in hospital, we traveled the 100 mile journey every day to be with him, or stayed with him which obviously meant being away from our other three children.
In January 2002, Lewis was transferred back to Shrewsbury hospital, then eventually allowed back home. We had to learn how to feed him through a feeding tube and give him his heart drugs, he was on eleven a day. Our day started at 6 am and he had his last drug at midnight, but at least he was at home.
Lewis needed to go for a routine catheter, they needed to balloon his aorta, the procedure generally takes half an hour, but Lewis arrested twice during it and was again placed back on Intensive Care and we were once again on the emotional rollercoaster ride, living at Birmingham Children's Hospital, away from our family. He amazed doctors again by bouncing back so quickly and we again took him home.