Climb inspired by twins’ uphill battle for survival
Ivy Good and her sister Johanna faced an uphill battle to survive when they were born 13 weeks early last January, and now friends and relatives of the six- month-old sisters are climbing Carrauntoohil to raise funds for the medical professionals who helped them through the past year.
Linda Good and her husband Richard were told to stay constantly by little Jo’s bedside in the first days of her life, as doctors feared the worst.
However, her mother told how she shed tears of joy when her 10lb baby girl smiled for the first time four weeks ago at their home in Midleton, Co Cork.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel. With every child every milestone is special, but I started crying when Jo smiled for the first time four weeks ago, and giggled for the first time and now Ivy has sucked her thumb.
“I feel blessed every day I look at the twins in their cot and see their four beautiful sparkling eyes looking up.”
Linda, who runs the Country Kitchen in Midleton, said she hopes the people climbing Ireland’s highest mountain on Sept 28 will be inspired by the tiny babies’ fight for survival.
“It’s an absolute miracle that Jo is still with us and only because of modern medicine. Our girls were watched over 24/7. The nurses were very dedicated and treated each child as if it were their own.
“The twins have battled their own mountains in life. They have fought on, especially Johanna. There was no hope for Jo at one stage. She was great; she kept going.”
Doctors operated on the Cork mum while she was pregnant, as the girls had twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome — which means the blood vessels of the shared placenta are not evenly supplying each foetus — but a week later Linda went into premature labour at 27 weeks.
She said: “They are nearly seven months. They were born on the 11th of January; they were due the 12th of April and Johanna was 1lb 10oz and Ivy was 1lb 11oz.
“Ivy is now 13lb 7oz and Jo is 10lb 5oz. They were just like you would see a picture of a baby that should be in the womb. I have a small hand, and their body would have fitted in my hand. I was scared to touch them at the start.”
Johanna was shown on TV3’s Temple Street Children’s Hospital series, undergoing intricate neurosurgery ear-lier this year for a brain bleed, which led to her developing hydrocephalus or fluid on her brain.
Linda, who has two other daughters, Ruby, 6, and Gracie, 20 months, said Jo suffered the bleed to her brain shortly after she was born.
“Due to their prematurity, Johanna suffered a grade four bleed to her brain. She underwent two surgeries when she was a tiny 2lbs and again at 4lbs.
“Ivy was 90 days in hospital and Jo was 96 days,” she said, adding that when Jo suffered her brain bleed in the weeks after she was born, the nurses never left her side.
“The nurses barely left her incubator to get something, let alone take a break.”
She said she is now trying to raise funds with the Up the Hill For Jack and Jill climb for the hospital and for the Jack and Jill Foundation, which stepped in to help her when she left hospital with her daughters after three months.
“The parent facilities are limited in the neonatal unit and we hope some of our funds can be allocated to provide some facilities for parents to take a break from the high tension of the neonatal intensive care unit.
“The Jack and Jill Foundation not only offered us nursing support for when Jo came home, but also became a massive support to us.
“We are hoping 50 people will climb the mountain and we are also looking for volunteers guides on the day.”
Anyone interested in participating in the Up the Hill For Jack and Jill climb of Carrauntoohil on Sept 28 should check details on http://exa.mn/lk
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