Baby Noah’s sad passing at 90 days old—unable to breath by himself because of brain damage—has not been in vain.
The little boy born 15 weeks prematurely, weighing just 1lb 15oz while his mother was having a massive heart attack, was remembered at the Royal London Hospital with a donation to buy brain cooling equipment as his legacy.
Doctors were given a cheque for £11,200 towards a theraputic equipment system for hypothermia to treat brain injured new-borns at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.
The cheque was presented last Thursday by Richard and Lydia Hobden, both 34, who set up Noah’s Big Charity in memory of their little boy.
Lydia had a heart attack at home in January 9 last year while 24 weeks pregnant.
“I had a hole-in-the-heart,” Lydia told the Advertiser. “It was just a small one—but enough to cause blood clotting which gave me a sudden coronary without any warning.
“I felt a back pain and next thing I passed out. Richard called the ambulance service which had to instruct him on the phone how to keep me alive—it was touch and go.”
Doctors at her local hospital in Basildon carried out an emergency Caesarean to save both mother and baby. Noah was rushed 15 miles to intensive care at Whitechapel the same day and put on life support.
But the odds were against little Noah surviving.
“He struggled for 90 days and only managed 12 days off the ventilator,” Lydia recalled. “It was no quality of life for him.”
Noah’s brain failed to develop through severe damage and he died peacefully on April 10, 2013.
The couple received £3,000 donations from well-wishers instead of flowers and decided to launch Noah’s Big Charity to raise funds to buy life-saving equipment for babies.
Consultant neonatologist Anne Opute said: “The money has already been put to good use buying a brain cooling machine, which will help immensely in caring for babies at risk of brain injury—in memory of their brave little boy Noah.”
The couple, who have a healthy three-year-old daughter Liza, set up Noah’s charity to thank the hospital as a legacy to the son they lost at three months.
They are also expecting another baby—in just a week’s time.
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