Mum cried for most of her pregnancy after doctor's warning about unborn baby

A mum "spent most of her pregnancy crying" after being told her baby would be born with a myriad of life-threatening heart conditions.

Laura Davis, 35, was warned her child would not survive beyond his fifth birthday without treatment after a 20-week scan revealed the unborn baby was suffering from an unusual condition called tetralogy of Fallot - a combination of four different heart defects including a hole in the heart, a too-narrow pulmonary valve, a misplaced aorta and abnormal enlargement of the right ventricle muscle.

She was plagued with worry throughout the remainder of her pregnancy, as doctors had no idea how serious the condition would be until after the baby was born. Shaunie Browne was born on May 9 2022 against all the odds.

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Laura, from Bootle, said: "I probably cried for most of my pregnancy. It was just not knowing. He could be born blue and would have to go straight to Alder Hey. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. He was pink, healthy, crying. He had to go to the neo-natal unit to be checked over and an Alder Hey cardiologist scanned him and allowed him to go home. He was very lucky. But it was a scary time."

Shaunie thrived for a year before his heart condition and poor circulation caused his skin to turn blue. It was then doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital decided it was time to perform the seven-hour open heart surgery required to save his life.

Laura said: "They say without help, babies with tetralogy of Fallot won't survive past the age of five. It's life saving surgery. They had to close the hole. They fixed the valves as well, but one defect, the pulmonary valve, they couldn't save.

"It was the worst day of our lives. I still get emotional thinking about it. It was the waiting. We went down at 10am and didn't get to see him until 6.30pm at night in intensive care. It was a long day waiting around the hospital waiting for news.

"It was hard seeing him afterwards. He looked very bad with all his tubes. All we did was cry. We couldn't stay with him in intensive care, so it was hard coming back to the house and him not being there."

Shaunie spent two days in intensive care before being moved to a ward, and he remained in hospital for just seven days before he was allowed to go home with his mum, dad Shaun and 11-year-old sister Lola. The two-year-old will need further surgery to repair his pulmonary valve in the future, which Laura believes will come sooner rather than later.

To say thank you to the surgeons at Alder Hey, the mum of two has organised a charity skydive for the one-year anniversary of Shaunie's successful heart surgery - and has already doubled her initial goal of raising £1,000.

She said: "Shaunie's at nursery two days a week. He's doing very well. He's a bit behind on a lot of things like speech, but after what he has been through that could be all to come. But he is a happy baby.

"I just wanted to give something back to the amazing hospital. Everything from the care they gave me, the nurses coming to our house, even just the butties and cups of coffee, nothing was too much trouble for them. I cant wait to do the skydive and give something back."

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