“My baby was 10 minutes away from dying, a simple test would have prevented this”

Zoe Beresford and her husband, Rich, required in vitro fertilization (IVF) to have their first child, a baby boy, Rex, who is now 20 months old. So they had a happy surprise when they discovered shortly after her birth that the Briton, who lives in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, had become pregnant again, this time naturally. Their little girl, Pippa, was born in February 2023. But when she was only five weeks old, she almost lost her life.

The baby only had 10 minutes left to live

‘The ultrasounds never showed anything was wrong, but a week before Rex’s first birthday she wasn’t well.’remembers Zoe Beresford in the columns of Mirror. The parents rush to their GP, who tells them to go to the hospital immediately: “They diagnosed her with heart failure. The doctors told us she wouldn’t have survived another 10 minutes, so she was incredibly lucky to still be here.”

Due to her pathology, for which she underwent surgery, Pippa also suffered a stroke during the first weeks of her life. “We’re waiting to see if there are any developmental issues because of this. So far she’s doing well. She reigns supreme in our house! But knowing that she was only ten minutes away from losing her life is shocking. If her problem had been detected during pregnancy, none of this would have happened.”says Zoe Bresford.

A rapid test to detect heart problems in newborns

Zoe Beresford gave this testimony as part of a campaign by the Tiny Ticjkers association for better detection of congenital heart problems at birth, these disorders causing the death of more than 300 babies per year in the United Kingdom. The charity’s experts believe making a test compulsory could save hundreds of lives. This is pulsometry, which consists of measuring heart rate and oximetry, that is to say the quantity of oxygen in the blood. Low blood oxygen levels can indicate if a baby has a heart defect.

This test is quick and painless. To do it, you have to wrap a sensor on the baby’s right hand and on one of his feet, before connecting it to a monitoring device for five minutes. According to the organization, doing a pulsometry during the first 24 hours of life can help detect coronary heart disease before it reaches a critical stage. Currently, pulsometry is not compulsory at birth in the UK, and 20% of hospitals do not perform it. “Unfortunately, 1,000 babies leave hospital each year without anyone knowing that they have a life-threatening heart problem, putting them at great risk of heart failure. Some of these babies will not return home. hospital in time to receive the treatment that could save them”explains a spokesperson for Tiny Tickers, adding that 80% of children with a congenital heart problem who were operated on when they were babies exceed the age of 16.