Harry Smith

I found out I was pregnant with Harry on Saturday 29th November 2008, Everything seemed to be going
fine and we were really looking forward to being parents. We had our 12 week scan and I'll never
forget the moment we saw our baby's heartbeat on that screen, it was just amazing. I had severe
morning sickness and was diagnosed with Hyperemesis and had 2 stays in hospital in January. I
married Michael on 21st February 2009 and everything just seemed perfect, we were so happy.
Newlyweds with a baby on the way.

At my 20 week scan in March we were told that there was no fluid around the baby so I was referred
to the Fetal Medicine Unit at the RVI to see a consltant and have a high resolution scan 2 days
later. When we had the scan, it showed Kidney abnormalities and she suspected that it was early
onset Autosomal Dominant Polycyctic Kidney Disease. (This runs in the family).

We were told that the reason for having no fluid is because his kidneys were not functioning and
were not making any fluid/urine. She explained that the baby swallows the amniotic fluid, when
swallowing the fluid this is what develops the lungs. The fluid then goes through the kidneys to get
cleaned and into the bladder then back out around the baby. (Because his kidneys were not
funtioning, no fluid was being made from around 16 weeks).

Later on my 27 week scan, my consultant realised that the kidneys weren't actually abnormal but in
fact they weren't there at all and she couldnt see any kidney tissue. So the cause of him being
unwell was because he had no kidneys, even though this is the cause of all the problems, it wasn't
the main concern.
The main concern and what would need to be dealt with first would be his underdeveloped lungs. Once
he was breathing for himself and stable then they would deal with the problem of the absent kidneys
by giving him dialysis and a kidney transplant. We were told there would only be a 5% chance of
Harry being able to survive with his lungs being so underdeveloped and we were given a choice
whether to carry on with pregnancy or terminate.

After talking about it we decided to go ahead with the pregnancy, if we had terminated we would have
felt like we took the chance away from him and would feel guilty for this for the rest of our lives,
so we decided to carry on and give him the chance that he deserved. As Harry was breech I decided to
go with a C-Section at 39 weeks rather than a breech vaginal birth which would only add extra stress
to Harry's lungs. I was booked in for a Section on 21st July 2009.

Harry had other ideas though and decided he was coming early! On 22nd June 2009 at 35 weeks
Gestation I went into labour and was 6cm dialated by the time I was taken down for an emergency
c-section.
Harry was born at 14:50pm weighing 4lb 14oz (2.2kg).

When Harry was born he was in a poor condition and was dusky. His heart rate was less han 60 beats
per minute and there was no respiratory effort from him. He was intubated within 1 minute and needed
high inspiatory pressures to make any spontaneous chest movements. His heart rate improved to over
100 beats per minute and he was taken to the Neonatal Unit, on arrival to the neonatal unit his
heart rate was less that 100 beats per minute. Harry had a Thoracocentesis procedure perfomred to
drain air out of his Pleural cavity, the space between his lung and chest wall following the
Collapse/Rupture of his lungs.

After my Section I was taken to a private room to see my family and the immediately taken to see
Harry. After seeing that all they had done for him had no improvement on Harry's condidtion, we
decided that it was in Harry's best interest to have his drains removed to be taken ut of the
Incubator and switch to Palliative Care, as any further help from the Neonatal team would only be
prolonging the inevitable and putting Harry in pain.

We were taken back to our room where our family was and Harry was then brought to us with just his
oxygen tube in and we both held him. We then decided that it was 'time' to have his oxygen tube
taken out and peacefully in his mothers arms he passed away at 17:55pm, 3 hours old.

We are extremely proud of ourselves for making the choices we did throughout the pregnancy and we
wouldnt change what we did. We spent 3 precious hours with Harry in our lives and we will cherish
those memories for the rest of our lives. We done all we could for Harry by giving him his chance
and the doctors gave us 3 precious hours with him and for that we are extremely greatful.

Thank you for taking the time to visit Harry's site and remember him xxx