When Charlie Dukes was born, 11 long minutes passed and he still hadn’t breathed unaided. His parents tell DENISE BARKLEY about their ordeal and the very special support they received

WHEN eight-week-old Charlie Dukes cries during the night his parents jump out of bed eager to tend to him. After his traumatic start in life, Nathan and Stephanie Dukes take comfort from the normality of giving their baby his bottle and changing his nappy.

“It’s the middle of the night, but we are both smiling away!” laughed Nathan, 26, whose baby son was not breathing when he was born at the Great Western Hospital and had to be rushed to St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol for specialist ‘cooling’ treatment to minimise possible brain damage.

“There were several points at which we thought we would never get to bring him home, but he has defied all expectations – we are so fortunate and unbelievably grateful,” said Nathan, from Penhill, who has launched a fundraising appeal for Cots for Tots, the charity which supported the family in their darkest hour by offering them a room in their residential home just minutes from where Charlie was undergoing vital treatment in the special care baby unit at St Michael’s Hospital.

The total raised now stands at £1,500 and Nathan is passionate about helping other families in the same position as himself and his wife. He said: “That unit saved Charlie’s life, and the most wonderful thing is that the medical care and support for families come as a package – it is incredible and unbiased. If you need help, it is there, and it is free.

“At 2am, if I couldn’t sleep, I could get out of bed and be at Charlie’s bedside within minutes. I could just stand there and talk to him, it was so comforting. I could never put into words what Cots for Tots did for us.”

Nathan said the original fundraising target was £420, which would pay for two weeks’ accommodation for the family of a sick baby. With £1,500 Cots for Tots can fund a family support worker for a month to provide a lifeline to parents and families.

The Cots for Tots intensive care unit at St Michael’s has four cots with life-saving equipment and treats 750 babies every year. The charity also runs the 12-bed, family house, where the Dukes family stayed.

It was initially thought that Charlie’s problems could have been caused by the umbilical cord which was looped twice round his neck when he was born, but now doctors believe he probably suffered from lack of oxygen in the womb in the later stage of pregnancy.

“An MRI scan showed that Charlie suffered an obstruction with the blood flow to his brain and it has affected the part that is known to control movement and speech development,” Nathan explained.

“The doctors say he might have something similar to cerebral palsy, but it could take another three years to get a diagnosis – we will raise him with an understanding there may be a problem, but we won’t be obsessing about it, he’s just our lovely baby boy.”

Nathan and Stephanie were teenage sweethearts, having met as 13-year-olds. At 16, Stephanie gave birth to their daughter Ellie, now ten, and the couple married three years ago. They were looking forward to the arrival of their son when, at 33 weeks gestation, Stephanie noticed that her baby wasn’t moving as much. She was monitored at the Great Western Hospital until, at nearly 38 weeks, she began showing signs of pre-eclampsia, which can lead to serious complications for both mother and baby. The birth was induced and, after a normal labour, Charlie was born – but he was not breathing.

“He was taken away to be resuscitated, it was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Nathan revealed. “It’s difficult to explain the emotions – I’d just seen our baby born and there I was holding Steph while they resuscitated our baby just five feet away.”

Charlie, who weighed 6lbs 12oz, did not breathe unaided for 11 minutes, at which point he was put on a ventilator.

“The medical team at the Great Western were amazing – there were at least 15 people involved in treating him immediately after birth,” explained Nathan. “Dr Sarah Bates, the senior neonatal consultant, said to minimise potential brain damage he needed to be cooled down and, as they had no facilities for this at Swindon, she was sending him to St Michael’s in Bristol.”

Charlie was whisked off to Bristol by the specialist Newborn Emergency Stabilisation and Transfer Team (NEST) and once there he was put into a controlled state of hypothermia, reducing his body temperature to 33.5 degrees to decrease the amount of pressure being

placed on his brain. After ‘re-warming’, and an agonising wait of several days when doctors remained concerned about his lack of progress, Charlie began to make leaps forward. He opened his eyes, began to breathe unaided, cried and was being fed through a tube. At five days-old, Nathan and Stephanie were finally able to hold their baby for the first time.

Baby Charlie continued to make a great recovery and came home after a fortnight.

“He’s a happy baby and we love him to bits,” smiled his proud mum Stephanie. “We are so fortunate to have him and Ellie, as well as our lovely family and friends who have been so supportive.

“Charlie needs no feeding tubes or special equipment, and he is not on any medication – he is doing fantastic and feeding well. Considering what he has been through you wouldn’t know him from any other eight week-old baby, though obviously, as regards any brain injury, only time will tell.

“We have been out and about doing normal things, school runs with Ellie and visiting a few people. Charlie’s journey is far from over, but things are looking positive.”

And Nathan had special praise for daughter Ellie, who was “so positive and mature” throughout Charlie’s hospital treatment.

“She was so excited about having a baby brother, in fact it was her who piped up ‘yes’ after the radiographer asked us if we wanted to know the sex of the baby at Steph’s scan!” the proud dad revealed.

“And then Charlie was born and he was so poorly, but Ellie was amazing – she’s only a child and yet she’s the strongest of us all.”

Nathan, who is a workshop assistant at Handy Garden Machinery in Swindon, thanked his employers for their support too.

He said: “They were so understanding – they said don’t worry about work, you concentrate on your family. They were wonderful.”

Visit justgiving.com/fundraising/charliedukes