Lucas Jones’ Story

Lucas is amazing, he has gone from strength to strength and has become a very clever, beautiful and cheeky little boy.

My son Lucas was born at the RVI in December 2009 and spent 5 weeks in SCBU. The care he received and the help he got I believe saved his life and I have you and all the staff at the RVI to thank for that, I own you my life too. He was 9 weeks premature. My partner was also in hospital and received equal care.

Emma was 3 months pregnant before we realised she was, with a first scan we worked out the due date would be the 01/03/10 and was a great delight to us. The pregnancy went OK, but she had a small bout with Pre Eclampsia and little high blood pressure which seemed to calm. On the night of the 29th December Emma complained of pains in her stomach that progressively got worse to the point her waters broke (which contained a lot of blood) at 4am. She was taken to hospital where they said she was having a placental abruption.

She was rushed to the RVI in Newcastle and had an immediate emergency caesarean, on 30th December Lucas was born at 3 pound 9 ounces, 10 weeks prematurely. He needed resuscitating as he was starved of oxygen for a long period and it took over several minutes to do this, Emma also lost a lot of blood and had very bad Pre Eclampsia but was taken back to the ward and recovered slowly over a few days.

Lucas was taken into Special Care and needed help to breath for the first few hours, they were also concerned about brain damage due to him being staved of oxygen for a long time. Lucas went from strength-to-strength and was taken off ventilation and showed no visible signs of issues. Emma was out of hospital 5 days later but had to leave Lucas in the amazing hands of the Special Care Baby Unit. We visited every day to see him, we gave him Kangaroo Care and Emma produced for him as he had to be fed through a tube. This was a really tough time for us both and I had to go part-time to balance the care for Lucas and I struggled to focus clearly at work. Lucas fed well and got stronger every day.

He was moved from an incubator to a crib after 2 weeks, his tube was removed after 4 weeks and he started to bottle feed. He was released from hospital after 6 weeks. Lucas is flourished into a fantastic little boy with great character. He has developed well and has better speech then a lot of children we know of similar age. He is very bright and smart and becoming very cheeky.

During the time this was the happiest but also the hardest time of our lives. I almost lost the two people that mean more to me than anything in this world, but thanks to the care and support I received from the staff at the RVI Maternity Unit and the brilliant care Lucas got from the Special Care Baby Unit it saved their lives. We are considering another child in the coming years but it has been hard for Emma to get over the trauma but seeing our son grow and becoming as amazing he is she has taken strength from that. I look back and realise how difficult it was to support everything as well as my own emotions but I see him every morning and realise how much I love him.

Emma and Steven Jones