Where do I start
Are you sitting comfortable.....
In 2003 I had a little boy seemed really healthy and happy untill he got to 6 weeks old. When he started to refuse to eat and screamed virtually all the time. We had booked are holiday and was dreading taking a screaming baby with us on the plane so I kept taking him to the doctors telling them there was something wrong with him but the kept saying he was fine. So as a final attempt to get them to listen I took him the doctors the day before we flew out and I kept hearing a wheeze every now and then. But once again they said he was fine and palmed me off with anti-biotics.
We flew out and to our surprise he slept all the way on the plane (oh forgot to say he was 16 week old at this point)
The first week was good he was very sleepy and did drink the odd bottle but I still wasn't happy. Then on the 16th September he woke up at 5am and I just knew something was wrong he looked different, then to my horror he had a fit. My partner phoned 911 and while he was on the phone we could here the trucks coming. Kai looked as if he was in agony but wasn't saying anything. When the ambulance crew arrived they looked at him and said he needed to go to hospital straight away
We arrived at hospital and the put him on anti fitting drugs as he had a couple in the ambulance, they done a spinal tap withing the first 10 minutes that came back clear, they also done a CT scan and that came back clear. They decided to send us to Arnold Palmer Hospital over night. We arrived and Kai slept all throught the night
Then a doctor came around and started checking him over, he got to his heart and he spent about 5 minutes just listening, he said there was something that didn't sound quite right, so they took him for an x-ray. We waited and waited but he didn't come back, Then a doctor came in and said the needed to get Kai into ICU as what the had found was amazing. We went with him and kai was just laying there with tubes and monitors all around him. They done a scan of his heart while we was there and said he had something called ALCAPA (anomalous insertion of the left coronary artery into the pulmonary artery) His heart on the right side had swelled so much it was filling all of the top half of the chest, it had also collapsed one of his lungs and they said he had had a blood clot that had come of the heart and went to his brain causing him to fit. They took us into a room with a chaplain and 6 other doctors and explained that Kai was seriously ill and that he could die at any time. They explained that he might need a heart transplant if it was too bad. They rang Miami Childrens Hospital and arranged for him to be airlifted down there. They airlifted a cardiac doctor up to Oralndo to collect Kai and they flew down to Miami. We decided to stay as a family and drive down to Miami over night ( I had my other children with us) . We got there in record time 3 hours, phoning every half hour to see if Kai was ok. When we arrived he was settled into ICU. We Met the heart surgeon Dr Redmond Burke and he had decided to operate that day at 1pm. Kai had his surgery and had got through it
It was at that point I had remembered it was my birthday, The best present I could have ever asked for was for him to get through the surgery. He was kept in ICU for 3 weeks and done really well, we couldn't believe how strong he had been., He was then transfered to another part of the hospital just so they could keep an eye on him. We we stayed at the Marriot hotel throughout are stay in Miami and the insurance company just payed it weekly. After 5 weeks in hospital he came to stay with us at the marriot for a week so I could be close to the hospital incase I got confused with all him medication. The insurance company sent a doctor out to fly back with us. They had arranged first class tickets for us
We arrived home safe and sound after spending 7 weeks in Miami. Kai is doing excellent now
his heart will never be 100% and his is parralised down his right side but he is doing great
We was also given pictures of his heart operation which are amazing. If you would like to see them PM me and I will send them to you
Well thats my trip report for 2003 holiday
And thats how we claimed so much on our insurance.
to you and your family for being so brave.
