On Sunday 17 July at 41 weeks pregnant, following a healthy pregnancy, the Redcar couple’s lives changed forever.
HELLP syndrome
Amy, who is a beauty therapist, developed HELLP syndrome which is a rare life-threatening pregnancy complication.
Her condition rapidly deteriorated and she was rushed into surgery at The James Cook University Hospital where Ada was born sleeping by caesarean section.
Once delivering Ada, surgeons worked to save Amy’s life after her liver had haemorrhaged and then ruptured, resulting in her losing five litres of blood.
Amy then spent two weeks in an induced coma in which time her kidneys had failed and she was on continuous dialysis.
As nurses tried to bring her round to breathe unassisted, they discovered a bleed on her lung and she was rushed back into surgery and underwent a sternotomy.
In total Amy spent six weeks in hospital, had pneumonia and several chest drains to remove fluid from her lungs.
Raising awareness
“I will be eternally grateful to the amazing team of surgeons, consultants and nursing staff from multiple departments within James Cook Hospital who have worked together to save my life,” Amy said.
“The scars I have will be a constant reminder of the worst time in our lives, however, none of this compares to the pain we feel from losing our beautiful daughter.”
She added: “We have taken some small comfort in finding a purpose following my tragic experience of HELLP syndrome and devastating loss of our daughter, we would like to give something back to help families during the hardest time of their lives.
“During my time in hospital my partner Carl along with our family could use the hospital’s existing maternity bereavement room – Billy’s Room to spend time with our daughter.
“Once well enough to leave the ward I also used Billy’s Room to spend valuable time with Ada and our family away from a hospital ward and in a more homely environment we were able to say our final goodbyes.
We will be forever grateful for this along with the support we received from the maternity and bereavement teams, so it goes without saying we want to do anything we can to give back to this cause which is very close to our hearts.”
Pledge your support
Lisa Meehan, from Our Hospitals Charity added: “Amy, Carl and their families have been through the most tragic of circumstances, their strength is admirable.
“It’s great to hear that Amy received such fantastic care from the teams here at James Cook and we are so grateful for the fundraising they are doing in memory of baby Ada.
“The facilities provided from this fundraising will make a huge difference to other families going through extremely difficult times.”
Donate today
If you would like to sponsor Amy, Carl and their friends and family you can do so via www.justgiving.com/fundraising/A-Peirse