Andrea Palmer
England, UK
Senen’s Story
It was the 18th of September 2008, I was very excited, the time had finally arrived! We new it was a girl and after 39 weeks and 6 days of the most perfect pregnancy I couldn’t wait to meet her.
The next few hours and days were a bit of a blur, with each new update the news got worse and worse. She was very poorly and there was a bleed in her brain. They took our bloods and were running tests to find out what had happened.
We were taken to the NICU on the next floor. It was devastating to see her. She was covered in bruises, especially her head, and there were wires all over her tiny little body. We decided to name her Senen Loy, after two favourite local beaches. The Consultant Pediatrician arrived, sat us down and began to explain what had happened to our precious little girl. Tests had shown that her platelet count was very, very low, 33k and had dropped even lower to 28k. They had given her transfusions of platelets and her count had started to rise. He explained that very low platelets would cause the bleeding and bruising and that he suspected that is was due to neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia or NAIT. This was later confirmed from our blood tests. A CT scan of her head showed that Senen had had such a ‘catastrophic’ bleed that there was very little brain tissue left and after consultation with a ‘Neuro’ team there was nothing that could be done and there was no chance that she would survive. We agreed to stop further treatment and allow her to come home for palliative care and let nature take its course. Our hearts were ripped open, and for a long time I was afraid to sleep in case I woke to find her gone.
Who knows what the future will hold.
Andrea