By NICOLE VALICEK
BEFORE two-year old Yve Rumble was born her parents knew she would be forced to fight for her life.
Yve’s mum Bea Tomlin and dad Paul were strongly advised to terminate the pregnancy at 20 weeks.
“The opening words (from the doctors) were ’your child was going to die’,” Bea said.
Yve would be born with a hole in the heart, an under-developed left side of the heart and a condition which would prevent her heart from pumping enough blood to supply oxygen to the body.
On 1 April 2011 the Williamstown couple decided against their doctor’s strong advice to terminate and opted to give their first child a chance at life.
They were advised if the baby’s chromosomes weren’t right she would not survive but decided if the tests were clear they had to give her a chance.
“We had some more tests for us to make a decision and decided that we were going to give her a chance and see if she could get through it,” Bea said.
Childhood heart disease (CHD) is the biggest cause of death and hospitalisation in children under one year old, with six babies born with a heart defect in Australia every day.
“The hardest thing was no one could tell us what her quality of life could be,” Bea said.
At just two days old, Yve underwent her first heart procedure; and more surgery when she was one year old.
“We were basically in hospital for about three months and we didn’t know if we were going to bring her home,” Bea said.
In the early days, Yve had 12 specialists looking after her – a cardiologist, nutritionist, speech therapist, respatorist, neurologist, ENT specialist and gastronomist – and a paediatrician who they appointed to ’project manage’ Yve’s doctors.
Yve’s vocal cords are permanently damaged which means she can’t go swimming and she will require medical support for her entire life, including another heart operation in her teens.
Bea admits life has been a roller-coaster over the past few years but today things “calmer” and Yve is now an energetic cheeky two-year-old.
“We’re really, really lucky … she’s pretty special.”
“We lived on adrenaline for the first year, always on-call for hospitals and emergency, whereas now in April it will be our year anniversary she hasn’t been admitted to hospital.”
This Valentine’s Day HeartKids is calling on everyone to be a sweetheart and help fight childhood heart disease. HeartKids Australia’s inaugural Sweetheart Day on 14 February aims to raise awareness and encourage donations to continue the national charity’s support, research, advocacy and awareness work.
To donate or buy a virtual Valentine’s gift at www.sweetheartday.org.au. All proceeds go directly to HeartKids Australia.
