HAPPY FAMILIES…Paul and Elaine McGovern with little Ciaran
A BABY boy born at just 25 weeks weighing just 1lb and 6 ozs (630g) has defied less than 50/50 odds and is now fighting fit.
Ciaran McGovern, son of Paul McGovern, originally from Blacklion and a former St Michael’s College student, was born on October 5, 2014 at only 25 weeks, but is now a happy, healthy and thriving one-year-old boy.
It could have been all so different though for Paul and his wife Elaine, with the premature birth threatening the lives of both mother and child.
“After five or six days in hospital her blood pressure started to increase, with a condition called pre-eclampsia,” explained Paul. “She had that and also HELLP syndrome so at that stage she had to be delivered early.
The delivery went fine, he was OK, but it was very early, his lungs weren’t ready and he probably had about a 50/50 chance of survival at best.
When I heard that when he was delivered it was relief though, because up to that point it looked like maybe himself and my wife wouldn’t make it. It was very serious.
“A poor girl who passed away in Sligo in 2010 Dhara Kivlehan actually had the same condition as my wife had so the weekend before Ciaran was delivered her inquest was all over the papers so it was fresh in the mind.”
Being cared for at the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street it was a rough road for little Ciaran, who had to have heart surgery at two months, while still weighing less than 2lbs.
Baby Ciaran McGovern when he was born
“He had a tough enough start, he was on a ventilator for 10 weeks, assisted breathing, which is quite long, anything longer than a week is long.
He got off the ventilator before Christmas 2014 then started to make some good progress he was then on a CPAP (Continuous positive airway pressure) machine for only a few days then he was on oxygen, but he kind of stalled at that point, it took him a long time to come off the oxygen and in fact he remained in Holles Street until the 23rd February, 2015 until we got him, he was nearly five months in hospital before we got him home.”
Now living at their home in Terenure, Dublin, Ciaran is showing few ill-effects from his long ordeal and is already crawling.
He continued: “There’s been a lot of physical therapy, all those sort of things, but at this stage now he’s started crawling before Christmas and he’s just like a normal child. The way to describe it is he was born in October so his real age is 15 months, but he wasn’t due until January so we describe his corrected age as 11 months, nearly at 12 months.
“You compare his development to his corrected age so he’s actually caught up. For a premature baby if they’re crawling within 18 months that’s quite good, so he’s catching up, he’s’ doing really well, it’s a really good story.”
Paul and his wife Elaine are forever indebted to the work of staff at the National Maternity Hospital especially “miracle workers” Dr Ronan Mahoney, who delivered Ciaran and paediatrician Dr John Murphy.
“It’s unbelievable we’re very lucky. We were always positive. 50/50 is not great odds and given 50/50 with no issues like Ciaran has is an ever lower probability so we’re truly blessed.”
The story of little Ciaran gained huge support locally as the €9,000 raised from 2014 Macnean Christmas Day swim went towards the National Maternity Hospital.
“I would have done the swim pretty much every year from the start so they were kind enough to offer that up so everyone in the area dug deep and I think it was one of the largest amounts we ever raised. I think it made it even more special as there was a local element to it. We were thrilled and it was a very good distraction while we were in hospital as that was a tough time.”
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