Issac Samuel Burgess Villiers – © Ian Villiers 2017-19
Isaac Samuel Burgess Villiers came into this world on Tuesday May 5, 2009, at St George’s hospital, Tooting, London. Born with a condition called Jejunal Atresia that was picked up by sonographers at the 20 week scan, Isaac started life with a blockage in part of his bowel.
Without immediate neonatal care and surgery, Isaac would not be able to digest milk and grow. Under the great round the clock care of the staff at St George’s neonatal intensive care unit, Isaac and his family faced many ups and downs as he battled through surgery to remove blockages as the surgeons unpicked twists and made reconnections so Isaac could digest his mother’s milk and grow strong.
Daily blood tests, infusions of TPN (a kind of intravenous food which enabled Isaac to survive when he wasn’t able to digest milk), blood transfusions, flu viruses, blocked long lines, a double hernia operation, and an inability to put weight on were all finally overcome on August 28 as Isaac left St George’s a normal healthy baby for home.
The joy of watching Isaac grow from a baby into a small boy is impossible to put into words. Doting friends and family showered him in love and kindness. Previously joined to mum’s hip, Isaac was beginning to wriggle and crawl as he went off on his merry way to discover new things. Music group and bath time with Daddy were just the ticket as life continued to heal the scars of his time at hospital.
Sadly, out of nowhere, Isaac, suddenly pale, unwell and limp was raced to hospital. Despite our best efforts to save him, Isaac died in our arms on June 28, 2010, he was 13 months old and the centre of our universe. An internal scar or adhesion caused by the surgery on his bowel had blocked his upper intestine again and his bowels twisted completely on themselves, blocking all blood supply off to it immediately. The postmortem would show that Isaac had become susceptible to these adhesions and that his passing was instant and impossible to have predicted.
Isaac was such a warrior, a hero who battled through pain and distress, a boy who always smiled and laughed at everyone he ever met. Without the operations he had at St George’s hospital in Tooting, he would have never survived and grown to enjoy his first Birthday and Christmas at home, he would never have given so many people so much joy in his short life. But those very operations conversely, led to internal scarring which led to his death.
Whilst less invasive tiny keyhole surgery equipment fit for use on babies wouldn’t have saved Isaac’s life, many other babies today would stand a much better chance of recovering from surgery quicker with potentially less post-op complications.
Recovering quicker and returning home to family is incredibly important and powerful in helping those memories to heal.
There is not a day goes by when Isaac isn’t with us in our hearts, it’s still impossibly hard at times to hold on and we know we can never bring him back. What we can do is live our lives as he would have wanted and do something to try and help other poorly babies and their families get better.
Baby Isaac fund is our start in trying to make a difference, thank you for reading Isaac’s story.
Ian and Cristina Villiers
