Miracle mum Shanae shares Elliott's story:

On Tuesday night the 2nd of January I presented to our ED in Albany WA, I was 26+4 weeks pregnant with our third baby, and I had severe upper gastric pain, struggling to breathe. They noticed my BP was elevated and my bloods were off. I was admitted to the maternity ward. The next day my OBGYN kept me in, and it was decided then to fly me by RFDS to KEMH. I left my two daughters behind in Albany, my husband drove the 4hours to Perth. I arrived at KEMH at 11 pm on Wednesday 3rd of Jan. The plan was to monitor my preeclampsia & keep Elliott in as long as possible. On Friday at 27 weeks, I signed the consent for a classical C-section and resuscitation for our baby. At 5 am on the 6th of Jan at 27+1, I woke up with severe upper gastric pain, my blood pressure was spiralling out of control, a code blue was called & I was rushed off to the labour ward, they tried everything to stabilise my BP, my blood showed I had developed HELLP syndrome & then my BP went to stroke level. I was rushed to the theatre & at 11:49 Elliott Reef was born weighing 820 grams. He was placed on a vent for 24 hours before being put on CPAP. I was in ICU for 2 nights and remained in the ward for a week. We got our first cuddle the day after he was born. Our first setback was when Elliott developed sepsis & needed antibiotics, he was 3 weeks old (30 weeks). He had his first & only blood transfusion that day also. Elliott’s chronic lung made him very CPAP-dependent & they struggled to lower the pressure. Elliott remained on CPAP for 9.5 weeks. Elliott didn’t like when they tried to put his feeds up, he would desaturate constantly & would experience a lot of bradycardias.

Finally, he was put into HHF, he was only on that for 2 days before they put him on PBF (low flow). It was determined he needed the oxygen, not the pressure the HHF gives. Elliott had stage 1 ROP in his left eye the entire time we were in the NICU. He passed his eye test 2 weeks after we left NICU. He struggled with Chronic Lung Disease which had made it difficult for them to lower/reduce his breathing support.

Elliott was released from the KEMH NICU after 77 days (11 weeks). He was 38 weeks corrected; it was 2 weeks before his due date. He weighed 2.8kg. So many of the nursing staff & consultants were blown away by how quickly Elliott improved over his final 10 days there. Multiple people said, “We shouldn’t say this, but we didn’t expect you to be going home before the due date”.
Elliott struggled to gain weight but is exclusively breastfed as he now refuses to take a bottle. We are working closely with our local dietician and paediatrician to assist with this. He is now 8 months—5 months corrected and weighs 4.7kg.

The hardest part was being away from my daughters and not having my husband around most of the time, as he was back home working. The nursing staff became my friends as I sat there all day and chatted with them about everything. The nurses there are exceptional and really helped me through this journey. I was thankful to be able to stay at Ronald McDonald House in Nedlands, right near the hospital.
Celebrate every milestone, take it one day at a time. You will get there, it’s hard when you’re in it but you do get through it.