Sudden Cardiac Arrest

This is my son Bailey. As everyone that has met him will tell you, he’s is a great lad with an awesome sense of humour, a kind soul and is a super caring brother to his four sisters.

 

As you all may know, Bailey has had a very tough year after suffering a number of Sudden Cardiac Arrests. One of which was on his 21st birthday, which resulted in me pulling him out of the car and giving him CPR at the side of the dual carriageway way in front of two of his sisters. Something no Mother wishes to ever have to do. This attack left him with a sensory loss that has meant he can’t be around too much noise or big crowds. There have been many more of these attacks and there has also been occasion where two of his friends had to jump in and perform CPR on him too. Something as a family we are eternally grateful to them for.

 

Bailey has now had a monitor fitted inside his chest. This is purely to send readings and alarms to the hospital should anything occur. We have regular phone calls during the week informing us that his heart has stopped for periods between 3-7 seconds at a time. This means i pace around, checking in on him every five minutes just waiting for another attack to happen. It has left him scared to go too far incase anything happens and no ones around to help him. This has had a huge impact on all areas of family life.

 

Due to the lack of knowledge around Sudden Cardiac Arrest, the Doctors are unsure how this starts. 9 times out of 10, the person suffering from this, dies. It usually comes completely out of the blue with no warning signs and hits the fittest of people. I’m sure most of you will have heard about Marc Vivien-Foe, the West Ham footballer who died during a match from sudden cardiac arrest….or more recently Christian Eriksen who collapsed on the pitch in the 2020 Euros suffering from the same thing. Unfortunately usually the Doctors have no clue how this begins. And as in most cases, nothing definitive shows up on reports, leaving everyone, Doctors included, confused as to how it can be fixed.

 

Bailey has been told the same. Consultants are not sure if it is a Neurological or a Cardiac issue. All tests come back inconclusive. He is unable to have a defibrillator fitted. There is nothing that can be done as we simply do not know where this begins. We just have to wait & pray he doesn’t have another attack. Even though we have been told, another attack is extremely likely.

 

Bailey genuinely is the fittest lad I know. As a family we live life to the max and he was no different. He used to organise charity events, running 12.5 miles every day for a month in memory of his friend for instance…or cycling from North Wales to Portsmouth in two days with his Mum. He is a very fit and active lad. THERE ARE NO APPARENT REASONS FOR HIS HEART TO STOP! This is causing a huge amount of stress and worry as we just do not know when the next attack will be. Only that we have been told to take each day as it comes. One reason why we are desperate to get a defibrillator into our home.

 

This has all had such an impact on his life as you can imagine. From a very young age he wanted to join the forces, and at age 17, he joined the RAF, following a couple of years at Military College. but because of his condition his dreams of serving have now been shattered. He has gone from being an energetic, full of life lad with all his dreams in front of him, to him expressing that he feels he’s “just waiting to die” and unable to live life the way he wants to.

 

After almost a year of searching for treatment and endless emails and calls begging someone to help us with Bailey’s condition, we have found a hospital in London willing to do extensive investigations and research into this. Although it may not serve as a cure for Bailey, it may ultimately provide the ability to help manage his condition along with helping develop future testing and treatment for many others around the world. However, even though I’m working 7 days a week at 3 jobs, I am still struggling to raise the amount of money needed to keep up with medical bills and the cost of buying a defibrillator for our home. This really has come with a huge financial cost. But there is still so much to learn about this condition and what causes the heart to stop. And ultimately, I just want to keep my son alive and help him to start living again.

 

We are seeking help with funding towards the consultations and potential treatment for Bailey, some of which could possibly be overseas in Cleveland (USA) at their sister hospital. Although I am VERY positive they will find out quickly what is causing this, We have been advised that the consultations and testing alone could be in excess of £40,000 so we are aiming to raise as much as possible.

 

We have already set up a few charity events like a sky dive in July , a band night and even Baileys 15 year old sister, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 Bilateral Kidney Disease in December 2021, is planning to abseil down the spinnaker tower to try and raise funds. We are a very close family and we are trying our hardest to make sure we can raise this money in between hospital appointments and work.

 

As most of you know, the thought of having to ask anyone for help is a HUGE struggle for me and this doesn’t sit easy having to do this but i am doing it for Bailey and if you feel you could help in any way, we would be extremely grateful.

 

Thank you and much love to you all ❤️