Volunteers Helped Save My Baby's Life

A Leeds mum is thanking volunteers for helping save her baby’s life – when she was told she had just hours to live.

Vicky Dalby says Imogen was a healthy baby, but seemed to suffer from chest infections. Feeling unsure, she took her into hospital.

A doctor was going to prescribe her antibiotics but decided to run a heart scan - just in case it was something more serious.

“When they scanned her I could see the look on their faces that it wasn’t good news, they’d found a rare heart condition and they said that unfortunately Imogen was in the last hours of her life. The heart and lungs were struggling so much she could have passed away at any time.”

She was then rushed to intensive care and underwent open heart surgery. Now a healthy, happy 4-year-old, Imogen doesn’t even need to take any medication.

Vicky told Radio Aire that if the equipment hadn't been available, doctors say Imogen would have probably passed away in her sleep that night.

She says that donations and work from volunteers helped train the surgeons and buy the extra machines that ultimately saved her daughter’s life.

“Imogen left hospital with only a bottle of paracetamol… It’s amazing to think she’s gone from the last hours of her life to a lively little girl with a whole future ahead of her.”

She now wants other people to consider offering up their time

“You think it’s not going to affect you, then suddenly, when your life is in their hands, you realise that actually it is so important, you don’t know what’s going to happen, whether it’s going to be your family member, children, grandchildren.. It’s so important because it actually saves lives”.

Barbara Harphum is the National Director for Heart Research:

"You’d be surprised to hear that a third of all medical research done in this country is paid for by charity, so that’s over £1.2 billion a year - so it’s not just that research that’s helped these children, they can also help with the equipment they can buy".