Tobias Blackhurst

Tobias

Tobias Blackhurst

What can I say, my best friend Liz and her partner Steven where expecting to have a healthy baby boy.

This is there story.

Liz and Steven where booked to go into hospital to have a planned c section on the 28th of January where all went as planned, their baby boy Tobias was born at 11:23, weighing 7lbs 13oz. Liz and Steven where over the moon, everything was perfect!

The following day as the family where preparing to leave the hospital to take Tobias home, a midwife came to carry out final 24 hour checks, when doing so, she detected what she thought was a heart murmur. With further Investigation they checked his stats thats when everything went wrong.

Although on the outside all looked well, what was happening on the inside was about to change their whole lives. When checking Tobias’ oxygen levels, that’s when they became alarmed, She requested he be taken to resus immediately.

Not knowing what was wrong Liz and Ste followed, sitting anxiously, waiting to find out what was wrong, while doctors and nurses continued to work on Tobias.

The team at the hospital did not have a full picture of what was wrong, but took some very important precautionary measures, incubating Tobias, completing heart scans, running lines of antibiotics and other medicines and requesting immediate transportation to Alderhey Childrens hospital PICU department for further care.

Some time later Tobias was transferred by ambulance to Alder hey hospital in the early hours of the morning alone, due to the space needed for Dr’s and the specialist equipment.

Over the next few hours hospital staff would discover through various tests, bloods, heart and CT scans that Tobias had a very serious congenital heart disease, Liz and Steven where told, if they had been allowed to take Tobias home the outcome could have been fatal!

Doctors at Alderhey quickly diagnosed Tobias to have a condition where the left side of the heart had not fully developed during pregnancy resulting in a condition called Hypo-plastic left heart syndrome/pulmonary atresia.

Heartbroken, they spent the next four days sat with Tobias on a ventilator whilst Alder Hey carried out further tests.

He is now out ICU, on to a ward and is scheduled to undergo the first stage of a 3 stage process, having 3 major heart surgeries over the next 3-5 years.

The first stage of an attempt to fit a stent into his heart. The Dr’s still do not know if this will work by going through his artery in his groin and have explained that any complications will result in the planning open heart surgery.

All being well, he will then spend the next few weeks in ICU and further recovery.

This condition means that Tobias will never have a normal heart, and will require constant care for the foreseeable and pretty much his whole life, this is Heart breaking for his parents and everyone around them. As people close know how much Liz and Steven are devoted parents.

Liz and Steven are the bravest people I know. Taking each day as it comes. They have to, as they have another beautiful little girl called Eli-Vieve. Being the kind of loving parents they are, they need to be there for both children. They have been given a room In the Ronald McDonald house where they split there time going back and forth to ensure both children are well looked after. Eli-Vieve sleeps over on the weekend in the Ronald McDonald house with her mummy and daddy and at this point has only been able to meet her little brother twice

So, I have created this page to ask, if you can afford to do so, to help my friends out! anything, big or small will really help out with the heart breaking position Liz and Steven find themselves in.

Liz is currently on Maternity leave but will probably not be able to return to work as planned, so she can look after her new son full time and like all new fathers in the UK Steven is entitled to very little!

Liz and Steven extremely proud and hard working people and this situation has been thrust upon them. They did everything right. Planned for the future and ensured they would be financially stable when their new son came into the world. Like all hard working responsible parents try to do. This however through no fault of their own has left them in an incredibly difficult situation.

So anything you could spear would ease the burden of having to be in two places and once. Both work and the hospital all whilst trying to keep a normal life for there daughter Eli-Vieve.

Even if we could raise a weeks worth of wages. This would give them more precious time, concentrating on Tobias’s treatment and rehabilitation rather then the stress of money.

Anything you can spare will be going to a good cause.

Thank you for taking the time to read there story, any donation however big or small is greatly appreciated especially in these hard times for everyone. X

Baby Tobias

Tobias and daddy

Tobias and Mummy

Tobias

Mummy and Tobias

Ohana