A premature baby who was expected to die a few hours after being born when surgeons discovered she had a dead bowel has made a full recovery against the odds, with her mother saying “we’ve been crying happy tears ever since”.
When Deborah La Spina, 36, a marketing specialist from Sutton, London, gave birth, everything appeared normal – but after a few hours, her baby, Connie, who is now six months old, began vomiting, had to be resuscitated and was rushed to the nearest children’s specialist hospital. The hospital, St George’s, was the only one in the UK that could carry out an emergency procedure which would save Connie’s life.
After “being in the right place at the right time” Deborah and her husband Dominic’s journey with Connie did not get any easier – after multiple surgeries, IV drip feeding and three months in hospital. Before Connie was born, antenatal scans revealed she had an abdominal cyst, which Deborah and Dominic were told not to worry about – little did they know, it would turn out to be life-threatening. Connie was born one month early, on July 27 2022, at St Helier Hospital, London – all appeared well, and her parents were overjoyed with their new arrival.
