After arriving five months early, Robyn was kept in a sandwich bag
By Catherine Evans
BBC News
The parents of a seven-month old baby who was born weighing just 11oz (328g) are hoping they will be able to bring her home.
Robyn arrived five months early and has spent her whole life in the Grange Hospital, Cwmbran, Torfaen, where she needs round-the-clock care.
Her parents, Chantelle, 33, and Daniel, 37, from Malpas, Newport, are fundraising for treatment.
They described their daughter as a “tiny warrior”.
“We believe with the right therapies and treatment Robyn will have a chance of improving. She has already shown massive improvement over the last few months,” said Chantelle.
“We have no date for when she can come home. We are spending 24 hours a day with her between us. We are waiting to be transferred to another hospital where she can progress and continue her journey.”
Image source, Daniel Chambers
Daniel and Chantelle make sure they are with their baby daughter 24/7
After being born extremely prematurely at 23 weeks and two days, tiny Robyn fitted in the palm of a hand.
Robyn was intubated and placed in a sandwich bag to keep her vital organs warm while she grew.
Relying on a ventilator to breathe, she faced another fight for her life when she developed sepsis. She had 16 blood transfusions. Again, she survived.
Now weighing a healthier 8lbs (3.6kg), she is still the size of a new-born baby.
Doctors have prepared the family for the worst, as she still stops breathing several times a day, has severe brain damage after experiencing hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) at birth.
They are still assessing her needs and capacity as she continues to grow.
“We have to wait and see how she develops,” said Daniel.
Image source, Daniel Chambers
Now she’s grown to 8lbs, Robyn can fit into Halloween costumes for new-borns
“If she does, she’s likely to have cerebral palsy, so we’re trying to prepare for that, looking at treatments and therapies. So we might have to raise our goals as we go along.
“In terms of what the doctors have said, they’ve been honest, but I don’t know if they’ve just given us worst-case scenarios. They’ve said she’s unlikely to walk, talk, see, eat.
“We do believe that she’s capable of doing this. But we need the right treatments and the right therapies to help her along. Obviously the NHS will offer some treatments, but we need to go private for a lot of treatments and therapies to help her.”
He added: “Later on, when she is diagnosed with other things, there are options like stem cell therapy, which would be abroad and would need a large sum of money.
“We’re trying to prepare for the worst, hope for the best.”
Chantelle and Daniel alternate their visits to the hospital so Robyn knows they are always there, talking to her, playing music and even dressing her up as a Halloween pumpkin.
Image source, Daniel Chambers
When Robyn’s tiny hand curled around his fingertip, Daniel knew she could sense he was there
Although they were able to hold her when she was born, they were afraid to take her out of the incubator in case she caught an infection. She was so fragile.
But then her little hand wrapped around her dad’s finger.
“It wasn’t for a few months that we could have a proper cwtch and a cuddle with her,” said Daniel.
“We tried to limit our times of her coming out of the incubator. But every day we would put our hands in and let her know we were there, talked to her and she would grab your finger. It was lovely.
“Her hands were so, so small at the time. They were not even the size of the tips of our fingers, so she could just about put her hand over them. It was amazing, it was just so special.
“She knew we were there. Talking to her and being with her. She knows that she’s loved and that keeps her going.
“Just her surviving that gestation for a start, her having such a low birth weight, then to find out all along she had this brain damage and she got through it all with that, it’s a miracle really.”
The couple are ready to do anything they can to help their baby, who has already overcome so many odds.
“She’s still fighting through now and that’s why we’re keen to fight as much as we can,” said Daniel.
“We definitely owe it to her because she’s the one that’s done the fighting all the way through, so we’ve got to fight for her now.”
