Life Is A Miracle

The Miracle of Life Like any other parents Cathy and Brian were delighted when they found out that they were expecting their third child. Their first two children were two girls and they had been almost textbook pregnancies, with very few problems and natural births. At eight weeks Cathy had an apparent miscarriage and was told to expect the worst. During a scan ten days later there was a heartbeat, a baby and an empty space. Our baby had lost his twin. At twenty weeks on Christmas Eve Cathy’s waters broke and we were told by the doctors that there was little, almost no chance for our baby and that Cathy would most likely go into labour at any time but that our baby would most likely not survive. However, Cathy held on to our baby for another ten weeks with only tiny pockets of water visible in the womb on the weekly scans .We were continually told that due to the lack of water in Cathy’s womb that the likelihood was that our baby’s lungs would be so under developed that he would not survive more than a couple of minutes. Be prepared for the worst we were told. Through all this time our faith kept us strong and our faith became stronger as we believed in our hearts that against all the odds our baby would survive and be ok. Around this time we went to visit some very spiritual friends Pascal and Mary who assured us that the miracle had already taken place and that we should continue to be strong. Cathy was given a set of rosary beads which had been given to Mary by one of the visionaries at Medjugorje. On the morning of March 10th 2004 the builders arrived to start the attic conversion, which would take 6-8 weeks. Cathy was not due for another ten weeks. That day the roof literally came off our house .At 10.30 that night Cathy went into labour and our baby boy was born at six minutes past midnight on 11th of March, ten weeks premature but with lungs that were effectively twenty weeks premature. The moment he was born he was whisked away from us and taken directly to Unit 8, the Special Care Unit in Holles street Hospital .In the labour ward Cathy’s placenta would not release and in the end had to be manually removed. After three natural births without any drugs, Cathy had to have an epidural to have her placenta manually scraped from her womb. It was three o’ clock the next day before we were allowed to visit our baby son .We had already been told by the senior consultant that it did not look good. When we arrived up to Unit 8 we were brought to our baby’s incubator, which was the one farthest from the door. There were a number of surgeons staying very close and we were once again told that it did not look good and that they had done all they could but our baby’s lungs were not developed enough. Our baby was on a ventilator with chest drains stuck into his tiny body to drain the air escaping from his lungs, lungs which were so brittle that they had burst in four places as the air was being pumped into them by the ventilator. He was connected to a total of ten monitors with various lines all stuck into our tiny little man. His vital signs were failing and his colour was grey .Within minutes of seeing our son his vital signs had fallen to almost 10% of normal and we were told there was nothing more that could be done for our little boy. We were asked if they could turn of the Life Support and put our baby in our arms for his final moments. We were so distressed that we did not know what to do or think.

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The Miracle of Life

Someone mentioned the hospital Chaplain and we both instinctively knew what had to be done. When the Chaplain arrived, all of the doctors moved away as if expecting us to give our son the last rites .His vital signs were failing fast, but we wanted him Baptised. With the Chaplain we christened our son, Sean Peter Fitzpatrick and as we stood there and watched, Sean’s vital signs stopped dropping and began to slowly rise. One of the Surgeons who had not moved too far away immediately ran to his side and she began working on Sean with a will to match his own. Even Miracles need a little help. Sean was stabilised and spent another 26 days hooked up to the ventilator. Slowly but surely as each day passed we would count the machines and lines into his little body as one by one they were removed. Sean spent 88 days in Unit 8. During this time he was on a ventilator for 26 days, he was on 100% life support for 21 days, on oxygen for 82 days and contracted the MRSA virus twice. But all the time our little miracle was in the care of the angels who work in Unit 8. They are a very special bunch of people and special things happen there, especially if you have faith and believe. We Christened our son Sean, the staff in unit 8 Christened him Lazarus. Cathy had been released after 5 days but within a week she had to be re-admitted with serious blood loss, she required 3 blood transfusions and another DNC. She has made a full recovery. While the roof was off our house, Ireland was hit by its worst storms in fifteen years. The roof of our house went back on and the attic conversion was finished in time for Sean’s arrival home. Sean is doing great and is a miracle in motion, for every day he’s with us is a blessing and an acknowledgement of Gods love and The Miracle of Life. Love, Faith and Prayer are so incredibly powerful.

(The above article was published with pictures of Sean in The Irish Catholic Newspaper in August 2004)

The Miracle of Life

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Through Sean’s first 12 months he spent almost six of these in hospital. A simple cough in the morning would have Sean admitted to intensive care by that evening. During a particularly worrying period of about eight weeks Sean was admitted to intensive care five times. On each of these occasions the surgical staff were put on alert as it was felt that he may need to be put back on a ventilator. This was our greatest worry as this would be a tremendous setback for him and so each time we prayed by his bedside and each time he made a miraculous recovery from being dangerously critical to being released from intensive care after 24-48 hours and then allowed home after 2-3 days. On one of these admissions Sean was rushed into intensive care and after being stabilised he was x-rayed, the x-ray showed an apparent collapsed lung and Sean was immediately prepped for urgent surgery to drain and re-inflate the lung. This would mean surgery followed by a number of weeks back on a ventilator. Tears streamed from our eyes as we held him down, screaming, so that they could insert lines into his little arms and legs. As Cathy and myself held Sean from each side, we both were praying with great urgency and hope to Our Lady for her intercession to help Sean and to continue the miracle that had begun prior to his birth. With Sean prepped for surgery we had to wait for the paediatric intensive care surgeon to arrive. When she arrived about 30 minutes later, we spoke to her of our belief that this could not happen and she agreed to do another x-ray. This x-ray showed no collapsed lung. Sean was kept in intensive care for observation overnight and then released home the following day. Our Lady was watching over him once again. Around this time we sent a copy of the Irish Catholic article on Sean to the head of the Irish College in Rome and were amazed to receive a phone call to inform us that we were invited to bring Sean to a Papal Audience in Rome later that year. We travelled to Rome in November 2005 and were brought through the Vatican to be seated in the front row of the weekly Papal Audience. This was a truly remarkable moment in our lives and that of our little Sean who was now one year and eight months old and had already achieved more in this time than we would in our lifetime. In April 2006, as Sean was a “Premy” baby he was called in for an IQ test. We had been told originally to expect some damage as he had been deprived of oxygen for so long and had been so critical. Sean scored 113 out of 114!!! Through all this time and still now we never tire of sharing the miracle of our son with all who would listen and we believe and know that he has made huge changes to many peoples lives. For some his story has strengthened their faith, others have renewed their faith, others have shared his story and given hope to family or friends going through a difficult time or experience. One friend had lost her faith with the birth of her Down syndrome baby boy who at only three months old was due to have life threatening surgery. Cathy spoke to her and explained that Down syndrome children were special children and that these special children were only given to special people. Cathy asked her to have her son baptised before his surgery. Her friend said she needed time to think but two days before her baby’s surgery she had him baptised. The surgery was a great success and her faith gets stronger every day as she is consumed with joy and love for her special son.

March 2008

Sean continues to thrive and while he is still on medication, this has being continually reduced as his little lung continues to heal. It is now a full year sine he has needed to be admitted to hospital. He is now a very happy toddler of 4yrs who is full of joy and mischief. As soon as Sean turned four we realised that we must consider the fact that he would be ready for school, so with trepidation Cathy booked his place in our local St. Brigids Boys National School for 2008 and 2009 (Just in case). She was unsure if he was ready but his playschool teacher said although he was small in stature he was ready for school as he was becoming bored with the playschool activities. The week before he was due to begin I sent his story in to the Evening Herald who despatched a photographer within the hour. The following article appeared in the paper the next day along with a picture of Sean in his new uniform and one of him at three days old.

Little miracle Sean defies odds as he gets set for school By Lisa-Anne Crookes Friday August 29 2008 A Dublin boy who was born 10 weeks premature and given just hours to live following a difficult pregnancy where his twin died, will defy all medical predictions when he starts school next week. Sean Fitzpatrick (4) was given just hours to live when he was born in March 2004. His lungs had burst in four places having battled without the benefit of his mum Cathy's amniotic fluid for an astonishing 10 weeks before birth. The medical team at Holles Street Maternity Hospital fought hard to save him in the hours after his birth, but did not hold out much hope for the tot. With mum Cathy going waters breaking at just 20 weeks, Sean was given very little chance of surviving. "When he was born, doctors gave him hours to survive," Sean's dad Brian told the Herald. "For 12 hours he was operated on by a team of five surgeons and the first time we were allowed to see him he was crashing and was so critical that his vital signs had fallen to almost 10pc of normal," said Brian. "When they asked if they could turn off Sean's life support, we asked for a priest. I think they thought it was for the last rites, but we wanted him baptised. "After that Sean started to get better. It really was a little miracle. He is our miracle and now he is defying all the odds and starting school -- something that many thought would never happen," he added. When little Sean joins the school queue at St Brigid's National School for boys in Killester, Dublin, on Monday he will be head and shoulders above the other boys when it comes to life's struggles. Little Sean's story and his parents' firm belief that Sean's survival was nothing short of a miracle has also caught the attention of Vatican chiefs. In 2005 Sean and his family were invited to a Papal audience in Rome, a meeting the Fitzpatrick family cherish. Sean will be waved off to school on Monday by his sisters Daire (12) and Eimer (9) as well as his proud parents Brian and Cathy. "He might be smaller than most of the other kids but he will be fine. I will be the one in floods of tears," Cathy said.

Sean loves his “big” school and cannot wait to go in each day. His medication has been continually reduced to just two puffs twice a day and this is expected to cease within the next 6-12 months. He is as skinny as a whippet but his consultant says he is your typical greyhound who will never put on loads of weight. When we wonder what our son’s purpose in this life will be we are humbled by the many great things that this little miracle of the Lord has already achieved. In our prayers we say thank you every day.

Sean & his sisters Eimer & Daire