Galway family gives thanks for baby daughter – by helping others look in on their sick kids

When baby Zarah Feeney was born seven weeks early, her medical team feared she would not survive. She did not respond as well as expected to medication and one of her tiny lungs collapsed after she was delivered by caesarean section to mum Loretta at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe.

She was intubated and placed on a ventilator in the intensive care unit but it was decided she needed to be moved to Holles Street Children’s Hospital where the sickest babies in the country are treated. A team of medics from the Dublin hospital arrived in a specially adapted ambulanced to collect her, concerned that her second lung would collapse on transit.

It did – but only when she was in the elevator of Holles Street, allowing doctors to quickly treat the critical condition with the help of an x-ray.

And it was touch and go, recalls Loretta.

“She was anointed and christened in the hospital. They really didn’t know whether she’d make it and told us the first 48 hours were crucial.

“She was fighting for her life for a few days. But she really is a trooper. Her team said they had never treated a baby that responded so quickly They were expecting her to develop sepsis as she had two drains on either side of her lungs but she rallied.”

Loretta and husband David took turns to be beside their newborn in hospital but there were days and hours when they were not allowed to touch her or even be in the ward.

Thanks to a specially designed webcam, known as the Angel Eye Camera, the parents and close family members were able to monitor her progress round-the-clock by constant access to a live stream that was installed in the incubator.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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