Prematurity Awareness for Jessops Neonatal Unit

My name is Lisa Cartledge, and I am the owner of two nurseries in Dinnington South Yorkshire. I am incredibly grateful to be given the opportunity to have been chosen to run in the London Marathon in April 2023.

Recently a member of my staff Caley Flynn gave birth to a premature baby called Alec, and we would like to raise as much as possible for Jessops Neonatal Unit in Sheffield, to help, care and support other families who are also going through this too.

The story of baby Alec

Alec was born extremely premature on Wednesday 3rd August 2022 at 04.04am via an Emergency Caesarean Section at Jessops Hospital in Sheffield.

He was born after 29 weeks and 2 days, so he was 10 weeks and 5 days early.

After Alec was delivered, he began to cry after around 40 seconds!

Alec needed ventilation to aid his breathing but he was doing such a good job himself he was allowed to momentarily stop this so he could have his first ever cuddle with mummy and daddy.

Extra care was taken before Alec was moved from Theatre to Intensive Care, this was more precautionary but the staff at Jessops didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks moving Alec before he was ready.

He spent the next stages of his life in an incubator in Intensive Care on the Neonatal Ward, he was comfortable and on a ventilator for the first couple of days.

Alec needed to have a blood transfusion due to the amount of blood needed for testing.

He then became strong enough to come off his ventilation, as he was breathing primarily by himself, he just needed help with expanding and collapsing his lungs, so he was put on hi-flow which helped him do this.

Alec was also treated with phototherapy to treat Jaundice; he was on this for around 5 days before it settled down to the required level.

He spent 1 week in intensive care before progressing into high dependency.

Alec was still incubated to help regulate his temperature, but he progressed that well he was breathing un-aided and without any additional oxygen requirements.

Alec only spent 2 days in High Dependency before progressing into Special Care (the final stop before he’d be allowed home).

He continued to progress extremely well; he was now able to maintain his own temperature so moved out of his incubator into his very first cot.

At 4 weeks old (he would have been 33 weeks gestation) Alec tried bottle feeding for the very first time as he was showing cue’s he was ready for this, which was surprising as babies shouldn’t start doing this while earliest 34 weeks gestation.

He progressed very quickly with this, so he was considered for early discharge.

The staff at Jessops started the required, yet vital checks needed for premature babies to be able to go home.

Due to the expertise of everyone involved within the Neonatal Unit, it was discovered that Alec had a Heart Condition.

Thankfully, Jessops caught this before it had any chance to make Alec severely poorly!

They took every step possible, quickly, and efficiently to get Alec transferred to Leeds to undergo heart surgery, which he had, and it was very successful.

Alec spent a total of 6 weeks in the care of Jessops Neonatal Team and a further 3 weeks in Leeds. So, Alec spent the first 9 weeks of his life in hospital.

Without it he wouldn’t here today, it was such a hard and scary experience to go through, but Alec made it and came out the other side such a Strong, Brave Little Boy! Our Warrior, Our Fighter, Our Hero

I appreciate you taking the time to read the story about baby Alec, and I wish to thank you for any donation given.