REAL LIFE
Two days before Nicki was due to go back to work as a planning manager after having Caitlin her life change dramatically. It was a normal day and Nicki was enjoying time at home when her baby daughter Caitlin just stopped breathing.
‘’T e next few minutes passed in blur as I somehow managed to call for an ambulance and we were rushed to hospital. I remember looking at my tiny bundle of joy and praying she would be OK.
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Doctors explained Caitlin’s oxygen levels had dipped dangerously low and they needed to place her in an oxygen tent. She also needed antibiotics to treat her for bronchitis. I sat there stunned.
T e hospital became a home from home ± my days were spent trying to feed Caitlin naturally whilst not disturbing her oxygen supply and my nights were spent praying at her bedside. One of the worst moments was when they had to put a cannula in her head, to administer the antibiotics. She kept pulling them out so they had no alternative. Some things are just too much to take and that really broke me.’’ T e one thing that kept me going was my faith when I felt like I had nothing left to carry on.
Caitlin had been in hospital for a couple of weeks when a doctor on his rounds picked up a slight murmur as he listened to her heart. T e doctor was concerned enough to have us transferred to Bristol Children’s
Words can’t describe what it’s like for a mother to let her child go through something like that.
Hospital and things moved quickly.
Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw on her
scan. Normally the valves that pump the blood around the body look like a fi gure of eight, but when Caitlin’s heart was scanned there was just one giant hole ± no obvious structure was there at all. T e blood was also pumping up into her lungs. She had been diagnosed with AVSD Heart Defect. It was impossible to understand what was keeping her alive.
Doctors wanted to operate immediately but Caitlin had lost so much weight and was so tiny that her body wouldn’t cope with such huge surgery. So we spent the few weeks feeding her up via nasal tubes into her stomach with special milk full of the nutrients to help her grow. All through this time my faith was my rock and I clung to that. It was a miracle that she’d survived to this point.
Four weeks later my baby daughter was taken down for open heart surgery. Doctors said it was a 50/50 chance whether or not she would survive. But it had to be done. Words can’t describe what it’s like for a mother to let her child go through something like that. All I could do was have faith.
Caitlin pulled through the surgery after being on life-support for 10 days. Nine- years-old, Caitlin is fl ourishing. Since then
she has also been diagnosed with Down Syndrome and gone under the knife again. She has a dual pace maker and at some point in the future she’ll have to go through yet another operation. She really is my little miracle.
Now a talented singer-songwriter, Nicki has channelled her experience of this time into her writing and inspired the single track Miracle Child, dedicated to Caitlin, released on her debut Album T e Journey.
I started writing songs about a year ago and it was like the fl ood gates just opened. T e songs fl owed out and I recorded the ten track album.
T ere are songs on the album that will speak to people that are going through challenging times. Songs of encouragement and love. I can honestly say that if I hadn’t had my faith during that diffi cult time when Caitlin was in hospital I probably would have crumbled”.
Due to their expertise in this fi eld of medicine Nicki is donating £1 from every copy sold of T e Journey to T e Children’s Heart Foundation.
T e Journey is available to download on iTunes from 1 April 2013 and also available from selected high street outlets. You may also buy direct from Nicki by contacting her through the web site. If you would like a taster you can hear two tracks from the album including Miracle Child at
www.nickidaniel.co.uk
www.r-magazine.co.uk 87
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