Ella's Story

The proud mum of a nine-year-old girl born with only half a heart has spoken of her daughter’s bravery in the face of three major operations Dawn Woodcock and her family have already seen ‘little smiler’ Ella overcome three heart operations after being born with a rare cardiac condition.

Mrs Woodcock was told at Ella’s 20-week scan, half-way into her pregnancy, that her unborn daughter had hypoplastic left heart syndrome – or only half a heart. She had her first life-saving open-heart surgery at London’s Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital at six days old, a second at six months and a third aged four. In the long-term she could even face the prospect of a heart transplant.

Until then, 46-year-old Mrs Woodcock, her RAF logistics sergeant husband Martin and Ella’s 16-year-old sister Chloe mark every day as a triumph. And they have agreed to tell their story to mark Children’s Heart Week, a national awareness campaign for children with congenital heart disease. It is being backed by the Birmingham-based Little Hearts Matter charity, celebrating 20 years since its launch.

Ella – one of only 200 children a year diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome in the UK – attends the Horncastle St Lawrence Special School for children with moderate learning difficulties. Her proud mum said: “We take every day as it comes, one at a time, because we simply don’t know whatthe future holds. The family adapts to exactly how Ella’s feeling because, with only half a heart, she gets very tired very quickly. But she’s a very happy child and has smiled through everything, even at the nurses straight after surgery. We know there isn’t a cure, but she’s someone who adapts to her needs and just comes out smiling. Ella may require a heart transplant, but that’s in the long-term. The school is fantastic and we can’t say enough about Little Hearts Matter because, through them, we’ve also met some very close friends.”

Little Hearts Matters’ chief executive Suzie Hutchinson said: “Twenty years ago children with complex single ventricle heart conditions could only be offered experimental surgery to give them a chance of life. This charity evolved at that time because of the stress, fear and lack of understanding such complex diagnosis created. Parents handed their precious children over to surgeons not knowing if they would survive the treatment. We are taking the opportunity of Children’s Heart Week to celebrate the amazing children and families. Thanks to improvements in surgery, they now have a greater chance of survival. We hope to highlight the challenges they face every day as they learn how to balance living within the disability that having only half a working heart creates. Little Hearts Matter works to support, inform and empower children, young people and their families as they learn to cope with the roller-coaster life that comes when you live with only half a heart. Many will face a heart transplant as they move into their adult life. However, today, there are young people in their late ‘teens and early adulthood thanks to the innovative surgery that has been developed over the last 20 years.

Story taken from Lincolnshire Echo.