In the hours after the birth of her “miracle child” Kayla Simpson was worried, not just for the life of her new daughter, but also her mother.
Downstairs in the special baby unit, at Wellington Hospital, her new-born daughter was fighting for her life after she was born with a missing valve to her heart, as well as a hole in it.
Upstairs in intensive care unit her mother was fighting for her life after a massive aneurism.
Ten months on, the Richmond mother is all smiles as she speaks about her family. “I’m just grateful for what I do have. I have a beautiful daughter and I still have my mother.”
Her mother suffered some brain damage after the aneurism which has affected her short-term memory. Kayla says the aneurism was one of the biggest seen at Wellington Hospital and it’s just amazing that she is still alive.
“A normal aneurism, they do five or six coils to stop the bleeding, mum had 16 coils.”
As for Payton, that miracle child, she continues to prove she’s worthy of that title.
Payton was only born at Wellington Hospital because Kayla and her husband Andrew were there to support her mother, who was transferred to the capital for treatment after her aneurism. The stress of her stricken mother brought on an early labour and Kayla gave birth four weeks early.
It turned out to be a blessing with Payton requiring urgent specialist care that Wellington can provide, but Nelson Hospital cannot.
“When she was about ten hours old Payton turned blue in front of the midwife, so she just sounded the alarm and rushed our baby away,” says Kayla.
“We were like ‘what’s going on?’ We didn’t see her for a few hours and Andrew and I got called into this room where there were probably about 15 doctors and nurses. Knowing that mum was upstairs fighting for her life, they said, ‘look, we hate to do this, but your baby has a hole in her heart and unfortunately she was born with a very rare heart condition called type 1 truncus arteriosus’.”
That meant that Payton needed open heart surgery to insert a new valve. But, because she was only five pounds when she was born, the doctors wanted to wait until she had put on more weight.
The next ten days involved Kayla trying to feed her daughter as the doctors continually monitored her at Starship Hospital in Auckland.
When the time was right, Payton was given a live transplant donation from another baby who had recently passed away.
Kayla says Payton will need open heart surgery roughly every year until she is 16.
“Basically, as she grows, her heart outgrows the implanted valve, so they need to put a bigger one in each year. At every open heart surgery there is a 50/50 chance she could not come out of it.”
Kayla says the reason that Payton was first given the “miracle child” title is that she didn’t think she could carry children. “The fact that she is even here is amazing.”
The past year has been an emotional battle for Andrew and Kayla, but she says she “doesn’t have time for a breakdown”.
“My mum needs me, Payton needs me, Andrew needs me. I think Andrew and I are also positive people so we look at the bright side of things. Mum is here, Payton is here, what else could you ask for?
“There are a lot of families worse off than we are, that’s why we don’t do the ‘poor us’. I think if anything, it’s made our family stronger.”
And helping the Simpson’s smile has been Heart Kids, a national charity that provides support for 2800 children and families each year.
This month is Heart Kids Awareness month and Kayla says she wanted to share her story to help raise awareness for the charity that attracts no government funding.
“That’s why we’re so keen to support Heart Kids, because they’ve been so good to us and our little heart warrior.”
To donate to Heart Kids visit www.helpingheartkids.org.nz or text HEART to 2427 for a $3 donation.
