The father of a seventeen-month-old girl has renewed his appeal to get his daughter a new heart after she has undergone a series of heart operations to try and save her life.
Terry Archbold, who lives in Burnopfield, County Durham, is currently undergoing a gruelling wait for the NHS to find his young daughter, Beatrix, a new heart.
After suffering heart failure in May, Beatrix is currently awaiting a heart transplant at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital – with her parents Terry and Cheryl by her side every step of the way.
However, in a fresh appeal to try and find Beatrix a new heart, her family have recounted the “horrific” ordeal that they went through earlier this year.
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In May of this year, the lives of the Archbold family were turned upside down after returning from a family holiday to Disney World in Florida to find that mum Cheryl and eldest daughter Eliza, who is 11, had tested positive for coronavirus.
When Beatrix – a happy and healthy one-year-old who had displayed no worrying health concerns prior to this moment – went off her food and became overwhelmed by fatigue, they assumed that she had also contracted covid.
After developing a neck rash, the toddler was taken to A&E at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead; something that the family thought would be routine.
But that all changed when doctors identified a heart murmur before x-rays revealed that one side of her heart was enlarged.
Things went from bad to worse when, on 11 May, Beatrix suffered heart failure.
She was quickly transferred to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, where she went into cardiac arrest.
Her dad Terry explains: “We couldn’t believe what was happening. If I’m being honest, I still can’t.
“With her heart failing, Bea underwent major heart surgery at the Freeman Hospital to fit her with a Berlin Ventricular Assist Device, an air driven pump which takes over the work of one side of the heart while the other continues to work naturally.
“While it pulled her back from the brink, it has been confirmed that she needs a heart transplant so the device will remain in place until, hopefully, a donor heart becomes available.”
What makes this story even more heart-breaking for the Archbold family is that while they are waiting for a heart, they have been on the other side of proceedings.
Having tragically lost their second daughter, Isabel, to stillbirth in 2018, they donated her heart to medical research.
Terry added: “Isabel suffered from hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition completely unrelated to that which affects Bea.
“Being asked to consider donating Isabel’s heart was incredibly difficult, especially at such an indescribably upsetting moment as losing a child.
“There was so much emotion, but we made the decision to donate her heart to aid research into a rare, complex condition.
“We wanted to help find a cure so that parents would not have to go through what we did. That was our way of hoping that something positive could come out of something devastating.”
Currently, the Archbold’s are trying to stay positive, despite the fact that there are around 204 kids across various hospitals in the UK waiting for a transplant, but there are only around 50-60 child organ donors a year; something the family call “frightening”.
Despite the agonising wait, Mr Archbold credits Scott House, where Beatrix has been staying from time to time, and The Children’s Trust, for their help during what is an “impossible” time for the family.
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He added: “The past few months have been a whirlwind, but thankfully the support of The Sick Children’s Trust and their Scott House ‘Home from Home’ has considerably eased the burden.
“It was the staff at the Freeman Hospital who told us how we had a place to stay at Scott House, with this wonderful charity giving us a room just a five-minute walk away from Bea’s ward, free of charge.
“The biggest gift anyone can give is time, and that is something that Scott House and The Sick Children’s trust have given us in abundance. When you are facing the prospect of potentially losing your little ‘un, you want every single second to count.
“Scott House has become a sanctuary for us, a place away from the beeping machines on the ward where we can regroup.”
Summing up the current and desperate situation, Mr Archbold concluded: “It seems strange to say this knowing how critically ill she is, but she’s doing okay.
“Her amazing personality is starting to shine through again.
“At the minute, she is in a period of stability which needs to be maintained until the opportunity of a transplant comes up, but we are also acutely aware that it might never happen.
“That is the reality of the situation.”
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