Leeds PICU ward in memory of Billy Nugent
We are raising money for Leeds children’s hospital PICU ward in memory of our son Billy Nugent.
Billy was born at Doncaster hospital on the 17th of February 2020 at 13:41pm. He was perfect in every way. He weighed 7lbs 9oz. Unfortunately around 4 hours after Billy was born he took a turn for the worse, we noticed that billy wasn’t really eating properly and his breathing was extremely fast. When we called in the midwife she identified that he only had 42 percent oxygen in his body, which is extremely dangerous given that the baseline is ideally no less than 93 percent. He was therefore immediately taken to Doncaster neonatal unit. Billy had blown a hole in his lung causing it to collapse meaning he was struggling to breath. The doctors also believed he had developed a lung infection, They then explained that this is something that they had never seen before as it is extremely rare that a new born baby can develop an infection ‘just like that’. They really didn’t understand what they were fighting against. As a result Billy was unable to stabilise his breathing and therefore he was put on a ventilator, unfortunately then he wasn’t able to maintain a stable blood pressure and therefore he had to be transferred to Leeds children’s hospital to go on a ‘Echmo’ machine which is a machine to basically take over the body to allow it to rest and repair. This was really successful in the beginning for Billy and he was stable and his body was tolerating the machine. However one of the unfortunate side effects of the Echmo machine were a stoke or bleeds on the brain. A baby is only supposed to stay on the Echmo machine for 5 days, day 4 came and Billy unfortunately had a bleed on the brain and therefore had to be taken off of the Echmo machine as it was too dangerous for him to stay on it. The doctors were amazing and billy successfully came off of the Echmo machine and went onto the ventilator which he tolerated for quite a few hours. However unfortunately on the 23rd of February early hours of the morning, we got a call from the ward saying that we need to come over. When we got there we were told that billy isn’t going to make it and we had to make the heart wrenching decision to support him off of the ventilator as he just wasn’t strong enough to carry on. Billy passed away at 6;45pm in my arms, peacefully and pain free. He was the most beautiful little boy and we miss him more every day. He defiantly made his legacy.
In honour of Billy’s name we are asking if anyone of you can make a donation no matter how big or small to support Leeds children’s hospital PICU ward. If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have got to see billy for 6 days, if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have been able to change his nappy’s or see him open his eyes. The nurses and doctors their are some of the best people I have ever met, so kind, caring, compassionate and truly amazing. They went over and beyond staying over the shift for more than 12 hours getting 2 hours sleep on a sofa, making sure that billy was comfortable, they never left his sight. So please if any of you can spare anything we would greatly appreciate it, building Billy’s legacy.
All our love Billy’s mummy and daddy.
