Miracles really do happen — and here’s the proof

Miracles really do happen

— AND HERE’S THE PROOF

It’s double the trouble when they get to the terrible twos. But for Sally and Andrew Knight, their story is at a whole other level. ALEX GRETGRIX heard from the couple who welcomed their bundles of joy into the world far earlier than expected

a woman could

be considered one of the strongest creatures on earth, but a mother can bring a whole other level of strength.

Even during a textbook pregnancy, birth and the first few years of their child’s life, there are always challenges a mother and family must overcome.

But none more so than Sally Knight and her family.

Sally and her husband Andrew always dreamt of having a family. After years of trying they were blessed with a gorgeous healthy little boy Hudson. Wishing to give their son a little brother or sister, two years later they were shocked to say the least to fall pregnant with twins.

“After the struggles we went through to become pregnant, the pregnancy was very straightforward. I loved being pregnant”, she said.

“I went to my 28-week scan and everything was fine.”

But on October 2, 2017 at 29 weeks pregnant, things changed rapidly.

“I woke up at around 5am, I had been tossing and turning all night,” Sally said.

“I didn’t think anything of it, having given birth before it didn’t feel like labour, to me it was as if the twins had just changed positions”.

But when she got up, she noticed a small amount of blood.

“Having never had any ‘spotting’ before I woke up my husband and he insisted we go to hospital to make sure everything was okay,” she said.

“I did say I’d drive myself to save waking Hudson, thankfully Andrew said otherwise”.

Sally was taken to Echuca Regional Health (ERH) where she thought she’d be put on bed rest worst case scenario.

Relieved to see Dr Peter Nesbitt on duty she was checked to see what was happening.

The next words are still very clear in Sally’s mind ‘you are fulling dilated; they are about to come out’.

“I just couldn’t believe it. I think Dr Nesbitt and I both went white.”

At the time, ERH didn’t have the facilities nor the resources to deliver premature babies.

“Thankfully, Dr Nesbitt, Dr Claire Goodman and the ERH team whom I have so much gratitude for, quickly took action.”

“It was too late to think about any pain relief and I was asked to try and resist the urge to push until the Melbourne Paediatric Infant Perinatal Emergency Retrieval (PIPER) team arrived but unfortunately Teddy was born half an hour before they arrived at 8.30am”.

Dr Goodman kept him breathing until the PIPER team arrived, within three hours of being phoned and then taking control.

“It’s amazing, I’m so grateful”, Sally said.

In all the madness, Sally was constantly asking if Hudson was okay. He was being cared for by a volunteer outside the door.

“With babies born so prematurely it’s unusual for them to be born crying but both twins were so I felt some sort of relief,” she said.

Her second baby, Ayla, was born an hour and a half after her brother.

“Ayla should have been born via caesarean as I wasn’t contracting but again there wasn’t time to go through that process and there were greater risks involved”.

“Without any pain relief, it was quite traumatic.

“Three different doctors attempted to get her out, grabbing her arms and legs without any luck”.

“With thanks to Dr Goodman she was eventually born breech”.

Teddy weighed a mere 1.21 kg (2.66 pounds) and Ayla weighed 1.14kg (2.51 pounds) which is fairly big even for a singleton at 29 weeks.

“Another blessing on our side”, Sally said.

Both babies were intubated and as soon as they were stable enough were air lifted to the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH).

“I had a shower, left the hospital and went

home to pack a bag and head to RCH. Thankfully we didn’t know what we were about to face”.

People often ask Sally if she went into shock.

“I probably did but I didn’t have time to think about it,” she said

Sally, Andrew and little Hudson spent two long heart wrenching months in Melbourne, living out of a motel room.

They never left RCH trying to be in three places at once.

“The guilt I felt longing to be with all three of my kids was debilitating, I was afraid to leave the twins side and I knew Hudson needed his mummy too,” she said.

“They were so fragile, fighting for their lives.

“I blamed myself for the position the twins were in, my body had failed, I failed as a woman, as a mum.

“I thought about all the what ifs, what if I had done this and what if I had done that different”.

The couple didn’t allow any friends or family to see the twins until we arrived home because she didn’t want them to see what she had done.

Sally said she still smiled ‘that smile’ that only a neonatal parent knows for fear she may never smile again.

“It is so unnatural having others care for your babies.”

It was a number of days before Sally was even able to hold her babies and even when she did she spent the whole time too scared to move for fear she’d knock their tubes compromising their breathing.

“You were constantly watching the monitor and listening to that horrible beeping noise, which I hope to never hear again”, Sally said.

All the while, Sally was a slave to the clock expressing milk every few hours as she felt that was one thing she could give to her babies.

“Thankfully, that was one thing my body didn’t let me down on, I think I could have supplied all of Melbourne.”

Ayla was to be extubated on day five and the doctors suggested it was a good idea to not be present for the event.

So they decided to do a quick trip into the city for some new shoes having worn them out with all the walking.

That’s when things went horribly wrong.

Ayla’s breathing was declining, and she needed to be reintubated.

“I got a phone call explaining that the specialist team were having difficulties reintubating her as her throat had closed over, they couldn’t explain why, other than possible swelling.”

“I got to Ayla’s room to see ten or so people standing over my baby, that’s when the severity of the twins’ fragility became a harsh reality.”

“I had the consultant tell me they were unsure what the outcome would be”. “I was no longer able to be strong for my family, I broke,” Sally said.

Eventually, the RCH team were able to get a specialist from another hospital who managed to reintubate Ayla but not without a number of complications.

“It was misplaced so her left lung collapsed and the medication that was required to fix her lung caused her kidney to fail,” Sally explained.

Due to Ayla’s breathing and heart rate being compromised for such a long period of time it placed huge question marks on what Ayla’s overall outcome would be.

“After what happened with Ayla, everyone was hesitant to take Teddy off the breathing machine,” she said.

Despite being in a big hospital like RCH, the couple were left with a harrowing decision.

The hospital had a limited number of low airflow dials that the twins both required.

“We had to decide which of our babies needed it most knowing the damaging effects of prolonged oxygen use,” she said.

“When you look back on it now, it doesn’t seem like a big thing, but in the moment, it was horrific having to choose one child over the other.”

But it wasn’t only the emotional burden that was taking its toll on the couple and their 2-year-old.

There were also so many other stresses going on in the background for the family.

The financial burden of living out of a motel room with a toddler for two months, they were in the middle of building their home, the pressure of Andrew not working.

After numerous ‘one step forwards, ten steps backwards’, the family were transferred to Saint John of God Bendigo late November.

All the twins monitoring was removed which created immense anxiety for Sally.

“I was constantly terrified, I got to the point I was literally unable to read, I was having trouble swallowing food, I was so stressed,” she said.

The twins were trying to establish feeding and have their nasal gastric tubes removed so the family could finally go home to Echuca, but this didn’t bring any relief for the family.

“While Ayla was progressing, Teddy was really struggling. He ended up having a tongue tie which created another debacle between specialists with differing opinions,” Sally said.

Teddy’s feeding slowly improved, and the family returned home for the first time in over two months.

“Whilst being home was great, things started to go backwards. Both twins started resisting feeds,” she said.

“I had such a raw fear that my babies were not okay, constantly checking they were breathing. I couldn’t bare for them to be out of my sight but on the other hand I was terrified to be alone with them in case something happened to them.

“My anxiety and stress levels were overwhelming.”

The twins were under the care of the local paediatrician who continually believed they had a dairy intolerance.

“In the end I tried every milk known to man, every bottle on the market, nothing was helping, they hated being fed,” she said.

“Teddy then started vomiting the little amount he would drink.”

There were numerous trips to emergency departments only for the family to be sent home with no one really understanding what was going on.

The twins ended up being dream fed (fed asleep) just to get enough to remain hydrated.

“You can imagine what it was like trying to get two babies asleep to feed numerous times a day with a two-year-old only to wake up and start again, mother guilt at its finest,” Sally said.

She didn’t leave the house for months feeding the twins around the clock.

With no support from their local paediatrician and having tried every other known option the decision was made to return to RCH.

Teddy was readmitted verging on dehydration.

“Thankfully I trusted my instincts despite being told numerous times he was ok,” Sally said.

The twins were both diagnosed with a severe oral aversion which is very common with premature babies.

The trauma and stress Sally had been through was now showing its mark physically.

“I had lost a lot of my hair and had lumps down the back of my neck,” she said.

When the twins were four months old there was yet another suffering for the family.

Sally had a sudden onset of extreme agony as she can only describe as a ‘constant contraction with no relenting in between’.

“I would give birth 20 times without pain relief before going through that pain again,” she said.

It wasn’t long before she was taken in the ambulance to ERH, again hearing the dreaded beeping of hospital monitors.

“I kept asking for the doctors to put me to sleep because they couldn’t get the pain under control,” she said.

“After what seemed like an eternity the team found I had a twisted bowel and I was straight in for emergency surgery.”

Sally required a bowel resection, losing 50cm of the organ.

You can guess what Sally asked as soon as she came out of anaesthetic, ‘are my kids ok?’.

Being desperate to be with her children Sally went home with 13 staples four days later, only to move into their new home the following week.

In their new home, things started to improve.

Ever since Teddy’s initial readmission to RCH the twins have been under the care of Dr Julian Kelly whom the family cannot speak more highly of.

Having no family locally Sally is extremely grateful to her second mother Jody Newlyn.

“She was always there for us”.

The twins are now two years old and you would never know they have had such a rough start to life.

“They’re perfectly healthy now,” Sally said with a smile.

“It’s just so validating hearing Teddy has surpassed all his milestones and Ayla is right on track.

“Teddy is full of mischief and loves to stir everyone. Ayla is more gentle until one of her brothers takes her toy. They have a very strong bond and hate seeing each other upset and they both idolise their big brother Huddy.”

But despite everything the family have been through, love was what got them through it.

“All three of the kids have taught me what it means to be strong, to feel love in its purest form and mostly to never give up on hope,” she said.

“I would tell all mums out there to always trust your instincts, you are your child’s advocate and to hug your kids a little tighter every day because you don’t know what’s around the corner”.