HEATHER Keary shares a very special bond with her university tutor Anne Weir.
She is the woman who helped save her life.
And now, Anne is training the 18-year-old to help other sick children in Scotland.
Anne nursed Heather when she was battling a serious heart condition as a newborn.
Heather was christened within hours of her birth because doctors did not expect her to survive the night.
However, against the odds, and thanks to the skill of surgeons in Glasgow, Heather survived and was named Yorkhill Hospital’s “baby of the year”.
The brave teenager is now training to be a children’s nurse at Glasgow Caledonian University, under Anne’s expert guidance.
Heather said: “I found Anne was my nurse at the University open day. She recognised my mum. It was odd because I didn’t know her at all. I was far too young when we first met.”
Anne said: “I remember Heather because she was on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) and we don’t have many babies on that. I nursed her in intensive care.
“It’s amazing to think about everything she went though and now she has chosen to be a children’s nurse.”
Heather was born on September 25 1997 at Irvine Central Hospital after a normal pregnancy. There was no known history of congenital heart defects within either family.
However, immediately after her birth, she turned blue and developed breathing difficulties. Doctors suspected there was something “missing” from her heart and she was rushed to Yorkhill hospital with mum and dad Liz and Derek following close behind.
Liz, 46, who lives in Kilmarnock, said: “We were advised that she was extremely ill and unlikely to survive.
“Medical staff were working on her in an effort to maintain her airway.
“We were told to summon family members whilst hospital staff made arrangements to have her christened. Heather was christened before any family members arrived.”
Heather was placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a life-saving method that mimics the work of the lung and heart, to give doctors more time to find out what was wrong.
Liz said: “We advised that Heather’s condition was still very poor and it was estimated that she only had a 10 per cent chance of surviving through the night.
“Derek and I remained with Heather when we were able to and allocated a side room on the post-delivery ward at the Queen Mum’s Hospital.”
Heather remained on ECMO for 10 days and was diagnosed with the congenital heart condition Tetralogy of Fallot with absent valve syndrome.
Liz said: “The condition was explained to us by medical staff. As the name suggests Heather had four defects in her heart including a hole in the heart allowing the oxygenated blood and non-oxygenated blood to mix hampering the oxygen levels being transferred around her body.
“We were also advised that the condition was further complicated by the fact that Heather’s pulmonary valve was missing.
“We were informed that Heather would require open heart surgery to correct the defects.
“During this time her condition improved and deteriorated repeatedly leaving us feeling like we were riding a very cruel rollercoaster.”
At less than a month old, Heather underwent open heart surgery to repair her heart defects and insert a piglet heart valve.
She remained in intensive care for a further five weeks with more highs and lows.
Eventually, the week before Christmas, Liz and Derek were given the news they hadn’t dared to hope for and Heather was allowed home after 12 weeks in hospital.
However, their joy was short lived.
Two weeks later Heather developed a serious virus and she was once more rushed to Yorkhill.
Doctors discovered that Heather’s pulmonary valve had narrowed significantly.
An attempt to stretch the valve was unsuccessful and resulted in Heather developing a blood clot.
Efforts were made to unblock the clot but the drug used caused Heather’s liver to hemorrhage.
Heather rallied round once more and her pulmonary valve was replaced when she was 18 months old with a human donor valve.
She had a further valve replacement at Yorkhill in 2010 and is doing well and in her first year of a nursing course.
Heather said: “I only need an annual catch up with cardiology.
“I will require more surgery at some point but we don’t know when.
“I really want to be a children’s nurse but I don’t know what area I will specialise in.”
caroline.wilson@                           evening times.co.uk