"My son, born with 2 heart defects"

In August 2024 my son was born emergency section and we weren’t aware he was born with 2 rare heart defects. He was rushed up to the neonatal unit at the Victoria hospital Kirkcaldy as they thought he had fluid in the lungs but a few hours later we discovered he had 2 heart defects - interrupted aortic arch and AP window. He was rushed over to Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow in an ambulance with his dad. I had to stay a little longer as couldn’t share an ambulance with him. A few hours later I was told I wasn’t able to go that night as there was no transport for me so I had to make my own way over and sign into the maternity unit at Queen Elizabeth. If our son didn’t get this operation he wouldn’t live any more than 3 months. He got open heart surgery at 9 days old and got home from the hospital early in September. We come home and had nurses coming out every couple days to change his dressing on the wound.

4 days later we met our health visitor Claire. Claire would come out every couple of days to check in on our son, and make sure he was recovering well, putting on weight  and taking to his feeds. Claire helped me a lot. Coming home from the hospital I had a lot of anxieties but Claire reassured me a lot and put a smile on my face when I struggled to. She would always reassure me how great a mum I am to my son and that I’m doing perfectly fine. She would help advise me on things and was there for even silly questions I had. I grew a lot of trust in Claire and would look forward to her visits to show her how our son's getting on and update on his health.

Our son was poorly a lot in the winter months with bronchiolitis and I had a lot of anxiety being back in hospitals and Claire was just absolutely amazing with me. She would phone check in on us and ask how I’m doing and I used to have a cry to her and I would always come off the call with a smile. She always had the right words to say to me to keep me calm. Claire is absolutely amazing at her job and the care she gives my son is just the best. Claire got him checked over with skills development teams as he has his delays from operation. Got him physio which he still attends. Claire went out her way to contact our nurses in Glasgow to find out every detail about his health and the conditions and this took a lot of anxiety away for me as I feel I have someone that can speak with me and help me if he was ever in the hospital. She made sure all his records were up to date regarding his operations. He went in for another open heart surgery at 9 months old but so far is doing great.

I wanted to write this as i respect this woman a lot and think she deserves a lot of credit for the work she does and the help she has gave me and my family. Claire helped get myself psychological help as I’ve been struggling with what happened with my son, and us getting split up when he was born. I can’t thank Claire enough for everything she’s done for my family.