Little Jamie defies the odds

LITTLE Jamie Boyce celebrates his first birthday next week, after his mother once feared she would lose him in her womb.

Mum Amy Haughey, 23, was told by medics that when her waters broke at 19 weeks that Jamie would probably be born within hours without hope of living.

He defied the odds and was born by emergency caesarean section at 27 weeks, long before most babies come into the world.

The child was only 2lbs 11oz, and as doctors feared for his life he was christened within minutes and rushed to another hospital.

He suffered a collapsed lung on his first night, had his chest drained three times, and spent almost four more months in hospital before he was allowed home to Glenties, Co. Donegal.

Despite this, he is set to enjoy his first birthday next Wednesday.

Amy, who dreaded every minute of what awaited Jamie during his first four months, at the same time held out hope when she heard her child’s heartbeat and felt him kicking during her pregnancy.

She said: “Most stories you hear like mine have sad outcomes. But in amongst them is the odd one that will give you hope that you can cling to and carry on.

“Where there’s life, there’s always hope.”

Amy’s ordeal started when her waters broke at just 19 weeks and she and boyfriend Shaun Boyce, 27, were told, after a scan, that their child had no chance of survival.

Amy said: “I was told there was no hope the baby would live. I wondered why they couldn’t stop the labour. I wondered so many silly things. I was trying to hold on to a little bit of hope that things would be OK.”

She said it was explained that without water, her unborn baby’s lungs were unlikely to function.

“The lungs would go like rocks and they wouldn’t be able to inflate them.”

Hours passed, then days, but nothing happened after the waters passed. Amy was sent home after five days, still carrying her unborn infant.

“I had to go in and out of the hospital but the labour still didn’t start. I looked up stories of experiences like ours. Most of them had sad outcomes but there was the odd happy story and that was what I clung to.”

Doctors still felt Jamie had less than a 5% chance of survival, but Amy kept clinging to hope.

“I felt like it wasn’t totally impossible. Although it was low, only 5%, it wasn’t zero.”

Doctors still prepared the young couple to expect the worst. Every day, however, Amy heard Jamie’s heart beat and felt him kicking.

When she was 27 weeks pregnant, Shaun, a joiner, rushed her into Letterkenny General Hospital with a prolapsed cord.

That’s when Jamie was delivered by emergency caesarean.

Amy was unconscious throughout the procedure because it had to be swift to save the baby from the prolapsed cord.

“It all had to be done so fast. When I woke up my little boy had already been christened.”

Amy only got to hold Jamie briefly before he was transferred to the neonatal unit in Atlnagelvin Hospital, Derry.

He spent a total of 15 weeks there before he was transferred back to hospital in Letterkenny, where he spent one more week.

Amy said: “The Donegal air must have done him good in Letterkenny, because he was home within a week.”

Now Jamie is able to sit and roll around and will soon be walking. He will have an early birthday at home on Saturday, with grandparents and aunts and uncles and family friends.

Then he will go on his real birthday next Wednesday to Altnagelvin Hospital. Amy said: “We want to bring flowers to the nurses who were so good in his early days. We want them to share in his birthday.”

There’s another treat for Jamie on December 28 when he will be star guest at his parents’ wedding.