Ophelia’s story 

Last June, myself and my family went through the hardest time of our lives. I gave birth to a beautiful little girl 15 weeks early. She was immediately defying all odds, however, what the next 12 hours would have in store for us was completely life changing and heart breaking. 

My little girl was intubated and admitted to the NICU. She was doing so well and on limited oxygen, so the consultants decided it was time to change her breathing apparatus. Upon changing the apparatus, she had an unexpected collapse and they could not intubate her again. They found a fatal birth defect that cost her, her life. They initially intubated her through her oesophagus where there was a small fistula that directed oxygen to her lungs. The birth defect that they found is called a Tracheal Atresia, where her trachea came to a dead end with no tube into her lungs to get oxygen to. I’m most cases, it’s fatal, but in some instances it can be repaired. 

If we had this condition routinely tested for during pregnancy like we do other health conditions, it would help to save lives and even help families to prepare for the things that could potentially happen upon birth and with a diagnosis. It can affect up to 1 in every 50,000 live births.
We can change this by making it routinely tested for to help families not have to go through things like I did, with my daughters condition being undiagnosed. Please sign and help families. Ophelia’s research can help to save lives and help families to prepare. 

Ophelia’s BMJ arcticle below ⬇️

https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/8/Suppl_5/A45.1