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Thursday, May 28, 2015
Holli Cheung: Sleeping with my son in the room woke up my heart after cardiac arrest
Holli Cheung suffered a cardiac arrest but her baby son, Jordan, was placed by her bed and her heart began recovering
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As Holli Cheung lay in her hospital bed desperately ill with a failing heart being pumped by a machine, doctors feared her hopes of surviving were fading.
But then husband Jason brought in their three-month-old son Jordan to lay by her side – and her damaged organ began beating on its own.
Holli had suffered two cardiac arrests after being struck down by a virus that attacked her heart muscles and medics believed her only chance of survival was a transplant.
Yet her medical team were stunned when they saw her incredible recovery after baby Jordan’s two-hour visit.
Holli, 36, who had not seen her son for 10 days until that incredible reunion, said: “I think that for whatever reason, he woke up my heart.
Lifesaver: Mum and son in hospital “I have no idea what happened when Jordan slept beside me. I’d missed him so much, and so to see him was incredible. All I know is that when the doctors came on their ward rounds the next day, they were astonished to see my heart beating.
“After that night, slowly but surely, my heart got a little stronger and I started to recover.
“My baby saved me, there’s no doubt about that. He kept me fighting, he made me stronger and determined to get better. He helped me recover.”
Jason told how he had decided to take Jordan to see Holli because he felt the tot needed cheering up.
The 40-year-old programme developer said: “I left him sleeping next to her for a couple of hours.
“Miraculously the same night her heart started to beat again. She was taken off the transplant list and just started to recover.”
Marketing manager Holli fell ill on New Year’s Day when she fainted at home while changing Jordan.
She had suffered headaches, which she’d taken paracetamol for, and her GP told her it was probably a lack of sleep. But within an hour of getting home, Holli fainted again.
Wonder tot: With little Jordan Speaking from her home in Aylesbury, Bucks, she said: “Next thing I knew, I was surrounded by paramedics and was on a stretcher on my way to hospital.”
Holli was taken to nearby Stoke Mandeville before being transferred to Oxford’s John Radcliffe.
A consultant there diagnosed her with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by a virus.
Shortly afterwards, gym fanatic Holli had her first cardiac arrest as the infection sparked heart failure. She had to be shocked 45 times with a defibrillator to get the organ beating again.
After being transferred to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital for specialist care, the sick mum had another arrest.
Holli said: “It took a team of five nurses performing CPR on me for 45 minutes to save me.”
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Holli Cheung was fighting for her life in hospital until her baby Jordan slept by her side As the medics desperately tried to revive her, Jason waited anxiously outside the critical care unit.
He said: “It was such a shock because you don’t expect this to happen to someone so young. Holli didn’t even look ill, and then to go in to hospital with heart failure…. I couldn’t take it in.
“All I could do was sit there hoping her heart would get better.”
Doctors managed to stabilize his wife but she was put on a biventricular assist device which kept the blood pumping through her weakened heart.
But the machine can only be used for around two weeks before complications set in. And after 10 days she was showing no sign of improvement so medics put her on the transplant waiting list. Jason said: “Holli was in shock. She just went very quiet and looked straight ahead.
Dad's relief: Jason brought in their three-month-old son Jordan to lay by her side “We knew a transplant would have life-changing consequences. Medicine for the rest of her life, restrictions on movement. And there was also getting the heart in the first place.”
Holli added: “The team wanted me to go on the list straight away. I was a priority because I was young and a mum. But it was still hard to take it in.”
Despite her own terrible plight, Holli began desperately missing Jordan, who is now eight months old. She said: “I missed holding him, feeding him, changing him.
“When Jason suggested bringing him in, I’d feel so tired and wouldn’t be in a state to see him. It broke my heart.”
Holli’s friends and family tried to cheer her up by pinning pictures of the baby around her hospital room. She said: “We started calling it the Jordan Suite.”
Graphic showing Myocarditis and how it affects heart After eight weeks, Holli was discharged. She still needs physiotherapy to rebuild her strength and has been told a full recovery could take up to a year.
But she has signed up for the 5k Color Run charity race to help raise funds for “incredible” team that saved her.
And she said thinking of Jordan will hopefully help her finish – a “a jog”.
Holli added: “He’s my inspiration. I don’t know if it was a miracle, but some of the nurses thought it was and without him, I’m not sure I’d be here now.”
