19 August 2008

Our dream turned into a nightmare

IT WAS supposed to be the most magical moment of Sally Johnson's life.

As midwives placed her new born baby boy in her arms, she looked down adoringly into his little face - and realised he was not breathing.

Within seconds the delivery room at Wordlsey Hospital in Dudley went into overdrive as nurses and specialists began the battle to revive baby Owen.

That moment was nine years ago and in the intervening years Sally has battled - not only to get the best services for her son, whose lack of oxygen at birth led to him having cerebral palsy, but also to cope with its effect on herself.

The family hit the headlines this summer when Owen was finally awarded an £8 million payout at the High Court to pay for his needs for the rest of his life.

But what about Sally's needs? How does a mum cope with a birth trauma on such a massive scale?

Although this summer Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust accepted responsibility, Sally spent years blaming herself for Owen's health problems.

In reality, there was nothing she could have done.

Midwives and nurses managing the birth at Wordsley Hospital did not call for an obstetrician after an abnormal test showed foetal distress during birth and as a result Owen experienced near total asphyxia, cutting off oxygen to his brain.

Independent medical experts found that Owen should have been born 17 minutes earlier when he would have been born "neurologically intact".

But initially, Sally and her husband Paul, had no idea what had happened.

"They put Owen on me and they let his dad cut the cord," recalls Sally, now aged 34.

"I knew immediately that there was something wrong. I had read so many books and seen so much stuff on the television about giving birth that I knew how the baby was supposed to be and he wasn't doing anything. He wasn't crying. He wasn't breathing."

As health specialists dashed in, Owen was resuscitated, placed in an incubator and rushed to the special care baby unit.

All the while his parents were in shock.

"He was our very special baby. We had planned so much and we had really wanted this baby and suddenly this was all happening," says Sally.

"It was just mayhem. I just kept having visions of someone standing over me saying 'I'm really sorry....'

"It felt like forever before he gave a gasp of air and they took him off to an incubator to the special care unit."

The couple were lost in a sea of uncertainty.

"It was 10.25pm when I had him but it was 1.30am before we were taken down to the unit. We were just left in a room until then," says Sally. "And when I saw him, nothing had prepared me for what I saw. He was so tiny and there were just all of these tubes everywhere. I couldn't hold him, all I could do was put my hand in and touch him.

"They told us the next 24 hours were crucial and we had a very poorly child but no-one could tell us what was happening or why."

Owen proved to be a little fighter. Within two days his condition had stabilised a nd in two weeks he was allowed back at the family's Dudley home. But the couple's nightmare was not over as they gradually discovered all of the health problems Owen had - and battled to find the truth.

"I hated myself," says Sally.

"I just kept asking 'what I had done?' and 'why me?' I had tried to do everything right but I kept thinking there must have been something I had done.

"We had a meeting with the hospital to try to find out if it was something we had done and they told us it was 'just one of those things'."

After nine months the couple were given Owen's diagnosis - he had cerebral palsy.

It helped immensely to have a diagnosis and to begin to plan for the future but even then the couple were finding it hard to cope.

"I was losing weight, I had all my hair cut off, I stopped caring what I looked like," says Sally.

"It was a really hard time. Anyone with a baby knows how hard it was but I had no experience at all of a child with special needs. All the babies I had held before had been healthy babies so I kept worrying about every single thing.

"I wasn't given any counselling and there wasn't any help for me. I did have anti-depressants for a short time but I didn't want to become reliant on them. My friends and family were there and Paul was doing all he could but he had to go to work and I just felt so isolated at home trying to cope.

"I felt all alone and it would have helped me so much if I had had someone to talk to and to help me."

The family wanted to do their best for Owen and, with the help of funding from Caudwell Children, he attended the Foundation for Conductive Education in Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham which specialises in helping child ren with conditions such as Cerebral Palsy. He also attends, and loves, Sledmere Primary School in Dudley.

But it has very often been an uphill battle ensuring all the appropriate support is in place, not least a five year battle for compensation for their son.

Over the years Owen has learned to talk, walk, feed himself and develop other movements, skills and interests.

Sadly his parents are now separated, although Paul, a 42-year-old brick layer, is still very much a hands-on dad.

"Paul is the best dad Owen could have," says Sally. "But with everything that was going on we just couldn't get on together any more."

Owen has turned out to be cheerful and bright as a button.

"He is quite intellectual and loves things like history," says Sally. "He is very lively and is always on the go. He loves all sports but his favourite is golf. He goes to the Adventure Golf at Star City as often as he can - they say he goes more than the professional golfers!"

Receiving the compensation has finally given the family space. Sally is preparing to move herself and Owen into a new bungalow in Moseley which can be adapted to meet the youngster's needs and the family are able to pay for care to ensure Sally is able to have some time to herself.

"At one point we were looking at having to sell our home to pay for the therapy that Owen needed," she says. "It is such a relief to know that Owen will now be cared for for all his life.

"We adore Owen. He is a very special child, CP or no CP, and there is a very special bond between us."

No comments:

Post a Comment