Tash and Jason are parents to Tyler.
At Tyler’s 20-week scan, Tash and Jason were getting excited to find out whether their baby would be a boy or a girl. It was at this point that the scan indicated something was not right.
‘The scan was taking quite a while and I thought it was a bit odd. We were then told that they needed to get baby’s head turned as the nurse could see some swelling.’ It was not long until Tash and Jason were sent to Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton for further tests.'
‘It was really scary. My biggest fear was ‘am I going to lose him?’. He was 20 weeks and I’d already bonded and felt a connection with my baby.’
When they went to the hospital, they were checked over by a series of consultants and eventually told that Tyler had something called lymphatic malformation.
‘The consultant explained Tyler’s condition and how they don’t see a lot of it. Every couple of years maybe. My first words were: “is he going to be okay?”’
Tash explained how after learning of Tyler’s diagnosis, she went home and googled it, and what she found was horrifying. The rest of Tash’s pregnancy was increasingly difficult and stressful, having to have constant scans to monitor Tyler, as well as not knowing exactly how sick he would be at birth.
‘We were told Tyler could end up with a tracheotomy, but they couldn’t know for sure. They also said he could go into neonatal, but again they weren’t sure. When I got to 34 weeks, Tyler was breach and so I was asked to stay in the hospital for two weeks until he was 36 weeks when they would perform a C section.’
At Tyler’s birth, there were 28 people in the room in total and Tash was only allowed to hold him very briefly before he was quickly rushed away to monitor his breathing.
