A few days of ‘nil by mouth’ passed (being fed via drip) and Clara was allowed to start having small volumes of milk again.
On New Years Eve 2017, Dean and I sat in HDU looking at our baby girl in her incubator – we’d been told she was due to be discharged the next day, on New Years Day.
We were so excited – a new week, a new year, and our new baby could come home.
At 11pm, it happened again – more terrible vomiting of a yellow green bile. We knew then that her journey was about to change and there would be no ‘coming home’ anytime soon.
Clara was immediately made ‘nil by mouth’ again. Numerous XRays, ultrasound scans and blood tests were organised but strangely all came back showing no indication of anything seriously wrong.
The following morning, the 2nd January, Dean and I were woken up at 6.30am by a call from Clara’s nurse. She told us to get up to the hospital quickly, Clara had deteriorated rapidly overnight and was being moved to Intensive Care and would be having an emergency operation.
When we saw Clara, it was clear something was now seriously wrong and it wasn’t the jaundice. She was grey, barely responsive, and heavy purple bruising across her stomach indicated something very very bad was happening inside. We were told later on these marks were showing internal bleeding, and the surgeons had thought it was by now too late.
Clara and the Gutcracker 