Supporting ECHO & Tiny Tickers

1 in 125 babies in the UK are born with a serious heart condition, our son Ernie was born with pulmonary stenosis, ASD and regurgitation of the pulmonary and tricuspid valve as a result of laser surgery in the womb at 18 weeks to save him and his twin brother from twin to twin transfusion syndrome. 1 in 10 identical twin pregnancies result in TTTS, this means one baby (Albie) is a donor, not getting enough amniotic fluid and giving all the blood and oxygen to the larger recipient baby (Ernie) who therefore is getting to much which results in organ failure. We were given a 25% chance of survival for both boys if we underwent the laser treatment to split the blood vessels connected between them both, if we didn’t have this they would both have passed away within 2 weeks. Thankfully, they both survived and were born 4 weeks premature. After a traumatic birth I noticed Ernie’s breathing wasn’t right, he was rushed off for tests. An echocardiogram revealed his diagnosis and he under went balloon surgery at 3 weeks old. He will need further surgery to repair the valves that have leaked as a side effect from the catheter surgery he had. 

Myself and Ernie’s godfather have decided to cycle from the special care baby unit at conquest hospital where Ernie spent the first few weeks of his life, to Kings college hospital at Denmark hill where my wife underwent the laser treatment in pregnancy and then finish at the Evelina hospital where Ernie had his surgery. We’ve chose this route as it totals to 125km which is a very fitting goal. 

We can’t thank ECHO and tiny tickers enough for all their support for our heart family, so we hope to raise £1000 that we can share between the two charities for them to help other families in the same need as ours.