'This is my way of saying thank you for saving our baby's life'

Lauren McCarthy's dad is helping fund a glass-walled garden room at CUMH where other parents and their sick babies can enjoy a little respite and see the sky, he tells EOIN ENGLISH

Lauren McCarthy is now safe and well at home with her best pal and big sister, four-year-old Zara. Born nine weeks premature after an emergency C-section, Lauren spent six weeks in CUMH neonatal intensive care unit.

A devoted dad is set to put in a marathon effort to help fund a very special project at the hospital that he credits with saving the life of his premature daughter.

CJ McCarthy said the demands of running a marathon are nothing compared to the physical and emotional strain that he — and especially his wife, Aoife — endured for six weeks after the birth of their daughter, Lauren.

Born by emergency C-section during lockdown, Lauren spent six weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH).

Now CJ is set to run the Paris marathon to help the hospital raise funds for its ambitious €1m ‘sanctum’ project — a special glass room in its garden that will allow parents take their tiny NICU babies ‘outside’ to see the sky and connect with nature.

‘Lauren has no fear and she has no worries. She and Zara are the best of friends,’ says her dad, CJ McCarthy. Now he wants to help make life easier for parents and their babies at CUMH.

“It was a long road for us after Lauren was born,” CJ said.

“The Paris marathon will be tough but nowhere near as tough as what my wife Aoife and Lauren went through back then.

“I wanted to do something to make a difference. I wanted to give back, to thank the hospital for what they’ve done for us.

“No matter how hard a day the staff at the neonatal unit in CUMH were having, they always went the extra mile to make us feel comfortable.

“And if I can make the hospital journey easier for a mother, father, and their premature or sick baby, then that will be great.”

Zara and Lauren with their parents CJ and Aoife McCarthy who say interventions by staff at Cork University Maternity Hospital saved Lauren’s life.

CJ, 37, who lives in Castlelyons, in Co Cork, and who works in the family business, McCarthy Insurance is completing his last long training run this weekend ahead of the Paris Marathon in April.

He has already raised more than €18,000 for the parents’ sanctum and hopes for a big push over the next few weeks.

Lauren's premature birth

He recalled how his wife, Aoife, 33, was 31 weeks into her pregnancy in January 2021, and was attending an appointment at CUMH for an anti-D injection, when a midwife discovered a problem with the baby’s heart rate.

Covid restrictions meant CJ had to wait anxiously in the car park.

Aoife was allowed home later but was told to return to the hospital two days later for a scan.

CJ dropped her off at CUMH and went grocery shopping nearby but got a phone call less than 30 minutes later to say there was an emergency.

He abandoned his trolley and raced back to CUMH, where he was gowned up and reunited with his wife.

“We didn’t know if it was a heart issue or something else, but the amniotic fluid around the baby was low and we were told by the gynaecologist that she was going to do emergency Caesarean section ‘now’,” he said.

“I’m a soft person generally, but something came over me there and then and I knew I had to be brave, to get my game face on, and that this was serious.”

Intensive care

Lauren was born a short time later, nine weeks premature, weighing just 3lb.

CJ said: “She could fit in my hand. I could see this little thing but I knew straight away that she was a fighter, like her mother.”

Lauren was placed in an incubator and spent six weeks in the care of NICU staff, getting stronger and healthier every day.

Covid restrictions meant just one parent could stay with her on any given day so the couple alternated, every second day, at her cotside.

Relieved parents

Lauren was finally given the all-clear to go home, and she has been thriving ever since, with help from her big sister, Zara, aged 4.

Tests later established that a clot in the placenta had caused Lauren’s erratic heartbeat.

CJ praised the support of family and friends during those difficult six weeks, and the care provided by the NICU staff, but especially the midwife who spotted the heartbeat issue during the scan.

“That midwife saved Lauren’s life,” CJ said.

“To be honest, I don’t want to think about what might have happened.

Lauren McCarthy having the craic with her big sister Zara. Their dad, CJ, says the training he's doing for the Paris marathon is tough but nothing near what Lauren and her mum Aoife went through. 

“I will be forever grateful to her, and to all the staff there. We often give out about small things in life but, for me, that was massive. Someone was looking down on us.”

CJ said spending time in the hospital can create a feeling of disconnection from the outside world and when he heard about the sanctum project, he decided he needed to do something special to help.

He has completed seven marathons, in Cork, Dublin and London, but hasn’t run in one for about 10 years.

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“Work and family kind of took over, and I suppose I put on an extra two or three stone in those years. But I’ve lost it while training for Paris and I up to 50 miles a week now,” he said.

CUMH neonatologist Peter Filan said developing a sanctum on the grounds of CUMH has been a long-held vision of the hospital.

Dr Filan said the glass room — a room outside, but inside — will provide a safe and secure space for parents to bring their babies where they will be able to connect with nature. He said: 

They will have privacy and time with their baby and they can see the sky.

“We think it will be a fantastic addition to the neonatal unit that we can offer parents and their babies, like CJ and Lauren, as they transition and travel through the unit.

“Lauren spent six weeks in the neonatal unit. We have some babies who spend six months in the unit and it’s those babies in particular that will benefit.”

CJ said the marathon training has been tough but worth it.

“It has been tough, I’m not going to lie,” he said.

“I had weight on me to lose anyway but I really am focused. It’s been challenging but rewarding.

“The support I’ve been getting at home, and from friends, neighbours, and work, is great and it really is motivating me to keep going.

“And Lauren is such a great character. She has no fear and she has no worries. She and Zara are the best of friends.

“What Aoife went through, what she did for our family, as a mother who carried the child, and who had to watch her child spend all those weeks in the neonatal unit, she was absolutely amazing.

“She is just a fantastic mother to our children, and she is an amazing wife. She is just unbelievable. Running a marathon in Paris is a small thing in comparison really.

“This is my way of giving back.”

• CJ McCarthy is running the Paris marathon on April 2. Click this link to idonate.ie/fundraiser/CJMcCarthy to support his fundraising drive for the CUMH Neonatal Sanctum