A mother has delivered a serious snoring warning to parents of newborns after her baby girl was rushed to hospital with a serious heart defect.
On June 25, Charlotte Lake and her beloved fiancé, Nathanael Guide, welcomed Ava-Rose to the world after a labour process which couldn't have gone smoother. However, just ten days later, tragedy struck. Leading up to the incident, the parents noticed that their daughter was breathing heavily and snoring very loudly.
After meeting Ava for a routine check, a midwife realised something was seriously wrong when she noticed that the baby's breathing was double the normal rate. She was then rushed to Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary for further inspection.
A baby was diagnosed with a hole in the heart after snoring very loudly (Daily Record)Upon reviewing the situation, medics initially diagnosed her with a chest infection as X-rays showed she had a white shadow on her lungs. However, after conducting multiple tests, the doctors realised the infant had a heart murmur. She was transferred to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow, where she was diagnosed with a heart defect and required open heart surgery.
In an interview with The Daily Record, Charlotte, 23, from Annan, said: "I had all the scans I needed during pregnancy, even a specific one for the baby's heart, but nothing was found. Ava's breathing just wasn't right when she was first born; she sounded bunged up. We even joked that she must be a snorer like her nana. But it just seemed to get worse. As well as her breathing, she was sweaty, and she couldn't keep anything down. It was taking an hour just to feed her because she would often fall asleep mid-feed.
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The family are trying to warn other parents to make sure they get their baby checked (Daily Record)She continued: "We were really starting to worry about how she was deteriorating when we told the midwife what was going on. To go from that to being blue-lighted to hospital was petrifying. I just remember thinking, 'Why us?' 'What have we done wrong?' There was just a feeling of absolute dread, and the scariest part was not knowing what was wrong at first. I just watched her every night as I didn't know what was going to happen."
In a bid to ensure her safety, the doctors put Ava on a feeding tube so that she'd gain weight before the surgery on October 6. Thankfully, the procedure went according to plan, and the baby returned home eight days later.
Charlotte continued: "Watching Ava go under anaesthetic was awful; she was screaming and fighting with all the wires on her. We were petrified, but if she didn't get the surgery, she would die. It broke my heart. But now she can live her life like a normal baby. It's just amazing.
"We've been told that if she was taken in when she was, there was a real risk of pneumonia or heart failure. You would never think something as normal as snoring would be a sign of something so wrong, and we hope our warning now helps other parents to spot the signs."
The family is now raising money for Ronald McDonald House in Glasgow and Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity. You can find out more information here.
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