When little Rose Doherty, from Garvagh in Co. Derry, won the 2014 Young Person’s Spirit of Northern Ireland Award, her family was overwhelmed as memories flooded back of the battle to save her life.
As Rose (5) plays happily at home with her sisters, Grace (6) and Anna (1), her mother, Orla explains that it was the family’s faith and that of others that carried them through a deeply distressing time.
It all began when Orla was told at her 20-week pregnancy scan that there may be some issues, such as Spina Bifida, Hydrocephalus and Ventriculomegaly.
Believing that God was going to look after her baby, Orla was overjoyed that night when, en route to Mass, she felt the first movement from the little one in her womb. Four weeks later, at the next scan, she was told her baby “was perfect”.
However, as a nurse, Orla questioned why the ventricles in her baby’s brain were so large. At birth, these ventricles are supposed to be 8mm but Rose’s were about 10mm, with another 20 weeks to go.
Placing her baby under Heaven’s protection, Orla wakened up two nights before she was due to give birth on feeling her toe being squeezed and “saw a figure at the bottom of the bed surrounded in bright light”.
Peaceful
Having seen nothing like this before, she recalled feeling peaceful as she lay down again, and just as she rolled on to her side the labour pains began.
“If someone told me this I would think they were mad but later, knowing what lay ahead, I thought back on this and felt it had been an angel reassuring me,” she says.
The birth went well but, when handed her baby, Orla instinctively knew something was wrong as “she looked like a different child on each side of her face”.
With no trauma during the birth, and remembering the concerns expressed at the first scan, Orla was relieved when an X-ray was taken of her baby’s head.
While some concern was initially expressed about the eye socket, it was concluded that all was well and mother and baby were sent home with the assurance that her head would “pop out” in time.
Rose was “a text book baby, sleeping through the night”, but Orla still felt perturbed and eventually had her request for an ultrasound granted. It revealed that Rose’s brain was trapped in one side of her head and she was sent to The Royal Belfast Hospital, where she was diagnosed with Right Uni Coronal Synostosis.
“The sutures in her skull had all fused before they were supposed to and her brain was trapped in the right side of her skull. In addition, Rose’s eye socket was very far back and her unprotected eye was only held by muscle,” Orla says.
Needing an operation to save her life, Orla and her husband, Shane were told that in three months Rose would be blind and deaf, and in six months she would be dead as her brain was so crushed.
After one particularly upsetting day, Orla again awakened during the night and saw a figure, surrounded in bright light, kneeling in Rose’s cot with her head resting on its knee.
Describing how its hands were held protectively around Rose’s head, she says: “We took great strength from that and also from special prayer for Rose at a Mass celebrated by our priest, Fr Brian Brady on the day we were going to England for her operation at the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford.
“We got unbelievable support from the whole parish and we had this great feeling of being carried along in prayer,” Orla says.
The surgery to rebuild Rose’s face was to last 13 hours and after 11 hours, they were told that the skin around her brain had been accidentally cut, creating a risk of lasting side effects, such as paralysis or epilepsy.
Reeling at this news, they met a nun who told them not to worry as it was St Rose’s Day and she would look after their little girl.
“We were amazed at this because we had not mentioned our daughter’s name. We began to pray and hope, and when Rose was later wakened in intensive care for three minutes to see if there was any movement, she moved all four limbs!” Orla says.
“We were then told to be prepared for the worst two days when Rose would be inconsolable because of the brain activity that happened. But, she just sucked her thumb and didn’t even cry.”
After surgery like this, Orla explains that children are usually on Morphine for three days and Codeine for three weeks, but by day three Rose was on Capol!
She added: “It was remarkable how nothing annoyed her and the consultant and nurses told us that they had never seen anything like her recovery.”
They were also told that Rose would have very bad headaches and sleep poorly, and could have speech and learning difficulties, or autism. This is assessed for annually, but Rose has none of them.
“She is now in primary one in our local mainstream school, has no headaches and sleeps through the night. At her last review, the surgeon said that he could not explain her recovery as anything else but miraculous,” says Orla, adding: “Rose is a miracle. She is a very placid, easy going and loving child, who exudes a very peaceful air, and we are so grateful every day that God and His angels watched over her so much.”
great strength from that and also from special prayer for Rose at a Mass celebrated by our priest, Fr Brian Brady on the day we were going to England for her operation at the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford.
“We got unbelievable support from the whole parish and we had this great feeling of being carried along in prayer,” Orla says.
The surgery to rebuild Rose’s face was to last 13 hours and after 11 hours, they were told that the skin around her brain had been accidentally cut, creating a risk of lasting side effects, such as paralysis or epilepsy.
Reeling at this news, they met a nun who told them not to worry as it was St Rose’s Day and she would look after their little girl.
“We were amazed at this because we had not mentioned our daughter’s name. We began to pray and hope, and when Rose was later wakened in Intensive Care for three minutes to see if there was any movement, she moved all four limbs!” Orla says.
“We were then told to be prepared for the worst two days when Rose would be inconsolable because of the brain activity that happened. But, she just sucked her thumb and didn’t even cry.”
After surgery like this, Orla explains that children are usually on Morphine for three days and Codeine for three weeks, but by day three Rose was on Capol!
She added: “It was remarkable how nothing annoyed her and the consultant and nurses told us that they had never seen anything like her recovery.”
They were also told that Rose would have very bad headaches and sleep poorly, and could have speech and learning difficulties, or autism. This is assessed for annually, but Rose has none of them.
“She is now in primary one in our local mainstream school, has no headaches and sleeps through the night. At her last review, the surgeon said that he could not explain her recovery as anything else but miraculous,” says Orla, adding: “Rose is a miracle. She is a very placid, easy going and loving child, who exudes a very peaceful air, and we are so grateful every day that God and His angels watched over her so much.”