Our son, Tommy, was born on 7th November 2006 with a severe heart condition, which we knew about from the 20 week scan.

We stayed close to the hospital throughout the pregnancy for scans and meetings with the consultants and surgeons and to go round the hospital where our little Tommy would be for his surgery.

When Tommy was born his heart was more severe then they first thought, so he was taken straight to neo-natal care and 3 days later we were transferred to the cardiac hospital.

At just 5 days old, our son had his first heart surgery and 5 days later amazingly we were on our way home again.

We had Tommy at home for a month before he got poorly again and we were back in hospital.  He had picked up a respiratory (RSV) virus and, with his heart condition, this was really serious.

On 4^th January 2007 we were transferred to the cardiac hospital again, where we would stay for a while.  They done a scan on Tommy's heart and found an infection, called endocarditus, and this had damaged a valve in his already very poorly heart.

The remedy for this is a long 6-8 weeks of antibiotics.  Tommy had a respiratory arrest on the 5^th of January, but recovered really well.  We were in the intensive care unit when this happened, but were moved back to the other ward when he recovered.

Tommy became more poorly as time went on and the antibiotics did not seem to be working.  He was taken back into the intensive care unit and on the 18^th of January he went in for a big operation.

Tommy did not make it out of this operation and on that night, we lost our little fighter Tommy Jack. He just got too tired.

We are so proud to call him our son and always will be. 

Tom and Carolyn Murphy, 2007

We asked Tom and Carolyn what their feelings were when Tommy's heart condition was detected at the 20 week scan.

We cannot say we were ever really prepared for what we went through from finding out about Tommy's heart condition at 20 weeks right through until he had his first operation.

It helped us to know that the time of the birth was going to be a very stressful time and we were going to have to be strong for each other, but most importantly for Tommy. 

Having the opportunity to speak to the medical team about any questions or feelings we had about the birth and Tommy's future was reassuring.  We also had the opportunity to be shown around the hospital where Tommy would receive his care and operations and this helped a great deal as we both do not really like hospitals.

Throughout pregnancy, our only concern was for Tommy; we wanted to give him the best possible chance, which we firmly believe we did - from the 20 week scan until the day he passed away. 

Having the fetal heart scans gave us and the doctors the advantage of knowing what was going on with Tommy's heart.  The doctors had a head start as to what kind of medical care he might need before he was born and what sort of care and surgery he might need from the moment he was born.

Without the fetal heart scans our precious 10 weeks with Tommy could have turned from weeks to days and we feel the care we received during pregnancy was very reassuring and we knew that we were in the best possible hands.

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In honour of my amazing son, I completed a sponsored bike ride from Oxford to Cambridge on 30 September 2007 - 89 miles! 
Tom, https://www.bhf.org.uk/my_sponsorship_page.aspx?p=78554