A couple had done everything they could to save their baby girl after being told three times that she wouldn’t make it. They felt their child draw her last breath, and then a miracle happened.
Parenthood is a gratifying stage in the human cycle, and for most, it is an immutable stage that brings out protective feelings and instincts. However, what happens when a parent has to watch helplessly as their child suffers?
The trauma is usually unforgettable — ask Lee and Francesca Moore-Williams, a couple who had to watch in horror as their daughter nearly died.
The First Health Scare
Francesca and Lee got married in 2012 and welcomed their first child, a boy named Bobby. Some years later, the two welcomed their second child, a daughter they named Bella, who was born healthy.However, at two years old, her parents noticed that she was losing clumps of hair; then they observed she couldn’t sit straight in her chair without slumping. They got concerned and immediately took her to a hospital, but doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. They initially suspected asthma because Bella also suffered from chest infections at the time, so she was prescribed an inhaler.
Things were expected to get better, but three months later, while the family of four were on holiday in Gran Canaria, Bella’s health deteriorated. For the entire duration of the holiday, her energy levels dropped, and she clung desperately to her mother.
As soon as they returned home, the couple took Bella to see the family doctors, who referred them to Colchester Hospital in Essex. By noon, a test had been done, and it revealed her “depressed” legs had no movement.
Bella’s Diagnosis and Predictions
Bella got weaker as doctors scrambled to find out what was wrong with her. Eventually, she started drifting in and out of consciousness because of a lack of energy. They put her on a ventilator and moved her to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.There she was admitted to intensive care and an MRI scan revealed severe abnormalities going on across both hemispheres of her brain. Experts told her parents that Bella most likely had a terminal Mitochondrial disease and were reportedly told three times that their daughter wouldn’t make it, so they sat by her side praying every day.
The Miracle
What Bella had was Biotinidase deficiency—a genetic disorder that affects only one in every 60,000 births—however, owing to its rareness, they weren’t expecting it. Fortunately, the hospital had dealt with a similar case six years before, so they knew what to do.
First came the biotin injections, which Bella took for a few days before they tried to take her off the ventilator to see if she could breathe by herself. She couldn’t and was quickly put back on the machine.
The days passed painfully slow as they waited for results, even as the doctors tried not to keep their hopes high. Francesca described it as a “very traumatic” time, but thankfully, the whole family was by their side.
Despite all they tried, Bella’s health was fading fast, and at 18 months, they were asked to say their farewells as she would be taken off life support, and the family did, amid tears. Francesca said:
“I now feel a lot of guilt for bringing family members there to say goodbye, but I didn’t know that at the time. I will never, ever forget that moment where I had to say goodbye to my daughter.”
They accepted an offer from the hospital to get prints of her hands and feet done as a keepsake. They also shared a final shot together with their son Bobby before the ventilator was switched off.
After that, Francesca started to feel the life leaving her daughter, but 30 minutes later, after the machines had gone off, the child tightened her grip just a little, and then she started kicking and screaming. This shocked the doctors, and they put everything they had into saving Bella, who had shown an unwavering will to survive.
Her oxygen levels went back to 100 percent, and the parents were later told their daughter would live. In the first hour of Bella waking up, the girl’s family who were in the waiting room cried when it was revealed that she was going to be fine.
However, they didn’t want to get their hopes up because the little girl’s breathing was still slow. The doctors and nurses couldn’t believe it and the latter, who’d taken care of her during her stay, kept visiting her room.
A doctor who came in on his day off reassured the Moore-Williams couple that Bella was going to pull through without going back on life support. After waking up, the little girl was moved to the children’s ward, where she spent three weeks before returning home to her delighted family.
Of course, it took another six weeks at home for her to get weaned off the harsh drugs she was put on, but Bella went on to make a full recovery. Anyone who sees her now would never think she was ever in such a state.