Skip to content

Brave baby’s heart battle

Share
Be the first to share!
By Abbey Morton
Lockerbie and Lochmaben
Brave baby's heart battle

MOTHER’S instinct kicked in for Fiona Henderson when her newborn daughter’s cold took a turn for the worse.

And at just 17 days old wee Maisie Cowan, from Lockerbie, ended up having surgery to correct a heart problem.

Speaking this week, Fiona explained she and dad Kevin Cowan had no idea of Maisie’s heart problems.

Fiona said: “At first it was just a cold, but I quickly knew it was something more. When she got upset she turned a horrible blue/purple and then white/grey.

“I had her at accident and emergency twice in one day, but they said it was just a cold.”

However, the next day a visiting midwife spotted the problem and called an ambulance to take them to DGRI.

Doctors and nurses were soon dispatched from Yorkhill Children’s Hospital to take Maisie to Glasgow in a neonatal ambulance.

Fiona said: “They were using words like ‘critically ill baby’ and ‘heart failure’, we spent the whole afternoon in tears.

“Her oxygen levels were really low, her SATs were about 50 per cent when they should have been 100 per cent and they still didn’t know what was wrong.”

Maisie was hooked up to a ventilator in intensive care as her worried parents waited for test results.

Finally, at 1.30 am they were called for and told she had a coarctation of the aorta, or kink in her heart, and needed surgery to fix it.

However, her cold made Maisie too weak for an operation and the family faced a two week wait in intensive care and the high dependency unit for her to get well enough.

Finally, little Maisie, who had dropped more than two pounds in weight, was strong enough and became the last patient to have heart surgery at the old Yorkhill Hospital.

Her progress amazed doctors and she was home with her parents, big brother Morgan and half brother Mackenzie just four days later.

Now the family are planning a series of fundraisers in aid of Yorkhill.

They will hold a 24 hours darts marathon and raffle at The Brig Inn on November 13/14 and have already raised over £200 from a darts match earlier this month.

Anyone wishing to donate can text KEVC78 to 70070, go to www.justgiving.com/Kevin-Cowan or contact The Brig Inn, Tesco or any of the 12 darts players.

Meanwhile, money is being donated from next month’s ABBA event in Lockerbie and a Scottish day will take place next month.

Annan and Eskdale

12th Apr

Ready, set, go - AROM raft race is back!

By Zachary Hannay | DNG24