Scottish Independent Media

Story by Claire Elliot

TARA Emslie had resigned herself to a life without children when doctors said she would never be able to conceive naturally.

But after 11 years of fertility treatment, a near-fatal pregnancy and months watching her miracle son cling to life, she says she is now the “luckiest mum alive”

And as she attended her son Gabriel-Shane’s first school parents’ evening this week she had to pinch herself as teachers praised the child she thought she would never have.

Gabriel-Shane weighed just 1lb 43/4oz when he was born four months premature in 2006 and is one of Scotland’s smallest surviving babies.

He spent eight weeks on a ventilator battling for life, suffered a major bleed to his brain, and needed four blood transfusions.

He almost lost his hand to a serious skin infection and was tube fed for nearly three months.

But remarkably Gabriel-Shane, who was just 11in long at birth, is now an active 3ft 3in five-year-old, who loves cars and football.

His twin sister Madison-Shane, who weighed two-and-a-half ounces lighter than him at birth, was missing a heart chamber and had two left lungs, and died in her father Craig’s arms shortly after birth.

Despite the years of heartache, however, Mrs Emslie, 40, from Aberdeen, said: “If we had to go through it all again just to have Gabriel we would.

“There are so many couples in the same situation as us, who go through IVF, end up in the neonatal unit and then leave with nothing. We are just so lucky and so grateful that we came home with one. And even now we still have to pinch ourselves to believe it’s real. He‘s a little angel.”

Mrs Emslie and her 41-year-old husband had been together just six months when she was told she would never be able to have children.

But the couple, who have been married 19 years, never really thought that was true until they had endured 11 years of failed IVF treatment.

It was only when they decided to give it one last attempt that Mrs Emslie finally fell pregnant with twins.

The decision almost cost the technical assistant her life, however, when she was left suffering from ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

It is a potentially fatal complication that can occur in early pregnancy following some fertility treatments.

Her condition was so critical that her mother, who lives in Australia, was called over to be by her bedside.

Mrs Emslie spent 16 weeks in Aberdeen Maternity Hospital. But she faced further agony when she went into labour just 23 weeks into her pregnancy.

For the next fortnight she had to lie with her head elevated to the ground and her feet to the ceiling to stop the babies “slipping out”.

She said: “Gabriel was in the birth canal for two weeks. The doctors didn’t think I was doing to make it but I did.

“Anything before 25 weeks is not classed as a legal pregnancy and the hospital is under no obligation to take them through to the neonatal unit.

“I turned 25 weeks the morning I had the twins and only one doctor said he’d take the boy and he came on duty at 6am that morning. It was fate.”

Gabriel-Shane was immediately whisked away to intensive care, where his parents watched him cling to life for almost four months.
 
He was so tiny his eyes were fused shut, his head was no bigger than a tangerine, and his heart was only the size of a thumb nail.

“He was just like a real life Barbie doll,” said. Mrs Emslie. “The kilts you get for going over the neck of a bottle of wine was too wide for his waist. You could see through his skin and his legs were like tooth picks. I didn’t know babies came that small.

“But he’s getting quite tall now. He’s 3ft 3in and he’s so determined.

“At his first parents’ night it was great. I was really glad to hear them speaking so well of him and of how well he gets on with everyone and how well he’s doing. Sometimes we still have to pinch ourselves just to believe it’s real.”

She admitted their ordeal took its tool on their relationship and at times they wanted to give in and go their separate ways.

She said: “Life was not rosy. It was horrendous. But sometimes it’s the really hard things in life that pulls you closer together.

“We‘ve been through it all and came out stronger.”

Even when they eventually took Gabriel-Shane home from the neonatal unit, as he was so tiny he would get tired and just stop breathing and his parents had to resuscitate him on three occasions.

“I was hysterical,” said Mrs Emslie. “But Craig was fantastic. He just jumped in and did what he had to.”

Having spent so much time on a ventilator it has left scarring on Gabriel’s lungs and even a simple operation to remove his tonsils, adenoids and grommets when he was two almost proved fatal.

Mrs Emslie said: “We were told he might not make it through the operation. There was even a stand-by crash team ready to put him on the ventilator, which they had to because his lungs couldn’t cope.

“We were scared and didn’t want to let him go. But he had to have the operation because his tonsils were chocking him.”

After just one day on the ventilator, however, Gabriel-Shane was had made a full recovery.

He still suffers from chronic lung disease as a result of being on a ventilator so long, which means he is more susceptible to colds and chest infections in winter.

He also has to wear a full wet suit to go swimming or his body will turn blue after just 10 minutes in the water.

But his mum said: “He is just like any other five-year-old.

“As quick as he goes down hill he bounces back just as quick.

“He likes to run and play football and despite his lung problems when we were on holiday in Paris he ran up 669 steps to level two of the Eifel Tower and then complained we were taking too long to get to the top. He’s a little angel and we are so proud of him

“We are the luckiest people alive and the only thing that could make it more special is if his sister was here too.”

To thank staff at the Aberdeen Fertility Clinic and the neonatal unit at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, where it costs around £1,000 a day to care for one baby, since taking Gabriel home, the couple have donated hundreds of pounds to the two causes.

Gabriel-Shane when he was first born weighing only 1lb 43/4oz

Gabriel-Shane Emslie, five, with dad Craig and mum Tara