Double Outlet Right Ventricle – Oliver’s Story
Megan’s son, Oliver, was born with Double Outlet Right Ventricle, Pulmonary Artresia and a large VSD. He fought hard all his life, but tragically passed away soon after his first birthday. This is their story:

The fetal cardiologists told us that the severity of his condition was 9-10 out of 10 (10 being the most severe). We were told the vessels in his heart should measure the width of a pen, but his were only as wide as a cotton thread. They said, if I were to continue with the pregnancy, his life would be very short. The estimate was a week.
I continued, because I knew it was the right thing to do. On the 13th of May 2017, Oliver came into the world screaming and kicking. That’s when I knew I’d given birth to a fighter.

As the stent went into his body and touched his heart, Oliver went into cardiac arrest. He was in arrest for 20 minutes. He completely flat lined; surgeons used a defibrillator and massaged his heart multiple times. When they found a pulse, Oliver was rushed to emergency theatre, where his chest was immediately cut open in order to save him. The procedure ended up taking nine and a half hours.
After four open heart surgeries to help repair his heart and encourage development in his vessels, plus spending time on an ECMO bypass machine and weeks on a ventilator, Oliver was dependent on oxygen. He couldn’t breathe and stay alert without it.
On the 15th June our worst nightmare came true. Consultants and cardiologists brought us into a room and said the words we never wanted to hear. They said, ‘We think it’s time to let Oliver go peacefully.’

But Oliver wasn’t ready to go. Within 48 hours, he did a 180 spin and decided to tolerate everything. We began to see improvement as he woke up from sedation. It turned out that our little boy stood a chance without life support after all.

After 110 days of being in hospital, we were finally discharged home with Oliver and we began to live our lives. We had the best Halloween, bonfire night, Christmas and New Year. We even had a naming ceremony in our church because we couldn’t baptise him again.
Oliver was the happiest, most smiley and lovable little boy anyone could ever meet. We had a party for his first birthday, where he had loads of balloons and a big Peppa Pig cake. He loved Peppa!
Everything was brilliant and we were so happy. We also found out we were expecting baby number two! So Oliver was going to be a big brother!!

We are forever thankful and in debt to Alder Hey for allowing us to be a family, even for a short amount of time. We’ll continue to spread awareness of CHD for as long as we live and will never forget about Oliver.
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