The Accident The Accident
The whole record of the events can be read in Cathy's record of the events surrounding Oliver's birth, however it is very long to read and tearful so here are some brief details.
Cathy was taken into hospital in for 10 days as she was suffering from a bad case of pre eclampsia. On the 16th September while Oliver was being monitored his heart rate dropped alarmingly, Cathy was prepared for an emergency C Section and Oliver was monitored for another few hours to see if it happened again. The cause of the heart rate dip is attributed to pre Eclampsia becoming worse. Fortunately no furthers dips were monitored in Oliver's heart rate that day. On Tuesday morning we were told that rather than risk another emergency C-section Oliver was to be born that afternoon.
Oliver was born on Tue 17 Sept late afternoon and was doing extremely well for a baby born as early as he was (30 weeks GA) see the Oliver & Us section for more details and photos of his progression. On Friday 20 September 1996 I happened to be walking into the ward where Cathy was staying when one of the nurses from the Special Care Unit intercepted me and said I must go to the SCBU straight away. I knew something was wrong before we got to SCBU, when we arrived I found Cathy crying with some of the nurses. We where then told that Oliver had died, his heart had stopped beating and no efforts could revive him.
Cathy's explains how we felt in her own record but I think you can imagine a baby who was doing so well suddenly dies without warning after everything we had gone through. We learnt later that the intravenous feeding tube which fed Oliver through his umbilical cord had manage to travel up in one of his arteries and pierce a hole is his heart causing it to stop.
Due to the unnatural nature of Oliver's death an inquest was held in September 1997. The inquest established that Oliver's death was an accident. The exact cause of this was unresolved. From a legal and medical perspective nothing is to be done, in addition Cathy and I separated in April 1997. After Oliver died we handled his death in different ways, it is very difficult to relate to other people this experience and we found this between ourselves even through we were both part of it. The upheaval this has caused to both our lives is immense but you carry on.
I hope through this site Oliver's memory will live on and help others in similar circumstances seeking information.
Please leave any comments or thoughts on the Guestbook
Back to Index
Updated November 10, 2002 12:33