SPECIAL REAL LIFE
Samantha Carty, 28, from the Wirral, cannot believe the selfless act that her partner made to save their son –a bond that can’t be broken…
Waiting as FaceTime connected, I wouldn’t keep our news a surprise for much longer.
‘I know you’re on holiday, but we’re pregnant!’ both me and my partner Josh, now 30, squealed as the call connected.
‘Finally!’ my mum, Tracey, and dad, Mike, smiled.
My sister Emma, and Josh’s parents, Cherie and Paul, were completely over the moon, too.
Together for 14 years, Josh and Ihad been planning to get pregnant for awhile.
And finding out that we were expecting aboy at our 20-week scan, our faces said it all.
Josh was the happiest I’d ever seen him.
As days turned into weeks, the rest of the pregnancy went by in abreeze.
By six-months, we’d already decorated the nursery in a safari theme.
And then, on 2January 2022, our baby boy Lucas was born at Arrowe Park Hospital, Birkenhead, at 12.24am, weighing ahealthy 8lb 1oz. Taking it in turns to hold him, everything felt perfect. Struggling to feed at first, Lucas came home days later.
And our boy loved having cuddles from everyone.
In fact, he hated being put down and he didn’t like his sleep that much either.
As well as being restless, he was hungry constantly.
Maybe we just can’t settle him properly, I thought.
Only, after two weeks, Ihad afeeling that something wasn’t quite right.
So, Josh and Idecided to take him to the local GP.
‘I’m going to transfer you to Arrowe Park, as I’m slightly concerned about jaundice,’ the doctor admitted.
Iknew that newborn babies would sometimes suffer with jaundice, so I wasn’t worried.
But looking at Lucas, he did have ayellow tint to the whites of his eyes.
Something I hadn’t really picked up on.
Only with Lucas’ bloods coming back high, within five days we were transferred to a specialist unit at Leeds General Infirmary for tests.
And by this point Lucas was very unsettled.
‘I don’t have aclue what’s going on,’ Iadmitted to Josh.
And with Josh’s paternity leave running out, we were very stressed, just wanting to get to the bottom of it all.
‘I’m 80% certain that Lucas has biliary atresia,’ the consultant revealed.
‘I’ve never heard of it,’ I quickly interrupted.
Finding out more, biliary atresia meant that there was ablockage in Lucas’ tubes that would carry bile from the liver to his gallbladder.
Arare liver condition which explained why Lucas had jaundice and was unsettled.
Not only had we never heard o
