A mother has spoken of her heart-breaking ordeal at watching her five-month-old baby endure a total of 14 operations, including open heart surgery, in a fight to stay alive.
Loren Bowcock, 28, from Bolton, says she longs for the day she can finally bring her baby daughter home – after spending every day of her life in hospital.
Now five months old, baby Matilda has been under the specialist care of doctors from the day she was born by elective C-section in November 2022.
And the mother-of-three to Harley, 11, and Mya, seven, has no idea when she can bring her daughter home to live with her older siblings.
She said: ‘You don’t think anything like this would ever happen, it’s something you see on the TV.’
Now five months old, a poorly Matilda Bowcock has been under the specialist care of doctors from the day she was born
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE – Matilda has a condition known as transposition of the great arteries – a condition where the two main blood vessels leaving the heart are swapped over
Her mother Loren Bowman, 28, said: ‘You don’t think anything like this would ever happen, it’s something you see on the TV’
‘People don’t realise that others have to live these lives until you’re living it.’
‘It’s just like I’m not her mum. It’s like something you see on the TV.
The care assistant first learned of her daughter’s heart condition at her 20 week scan. Matilda was diagnosed with a condition known as transposition of the great arteries – a condition where the two main blood vessels leaving the heart are swapped over.
Loren continued on with her pregnancy, but on November 18, just 30 minutes after Matilda was born, she was transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, where she has spent the entirety of her short life.
She couldn’t cradle her newborn for the first five days of her life, even after undergoing a septostomy – a procedure that widens or creates a hole in the heart – at just a couple of hours old.
Matilda has since had over 14 operations, including open heart surgery when she was only 12 days old.
And in January, she suffered a cardiac arrest where her heart stopped beating for seven minutes, which Loren said felt like she had ‘lost her.’
She said: ‘My life just felt like it was over. I just felt like I had lost her.’
Loren, also a mother to Harley, 11, and Mya, seven, has no idea when she can bring baby Matilda home
In January, Matilda suffered a cardiac arrest where her heart stopped beating for seven minutes
‘There’s been a lot of times where I’ve just broke down and thought that she’s given up. She has got a blood good fight in her though, she really has.’
‘When she had her chest drains in from her open heart surgery, she had them in constantly until two weeks ago.’
‘It’s only been the last two weeks that I’ve been able to pick her up by herself. Every other time I’ve held her, she’s had to be passed to me by a nurse.’
Loren’s other children were unable to meet their sister until Christmas Eve because of how unwell she is.
She added: ‘Mya is seven and thinks Matilda has a poorly heart and they think it’s broken and that she was born poorly.’
‘They knew I had to be away for a while but obviously it’s gone on for a hell of a lot longer.’
‘It’s like I’m having an affair because I’m living two lives.’
The mother explained her agony at having to tear herself between spending time with Harley and Mya, and being there for baby Matilda.
‘I feel like I’m letting someone down but I’m taking every day as it comes.’
She hopes that one day, Matilda will wake up in her own bed at home and even revealed there had been a few times the she thought Matilda was getting better.
She continued: ‘She is stable but she’s a sick child.’
‘She just needs to get a lot bigger, a lot stronger and take every day as it comes.’
Loren’s family and friends have set up a Go Fund Me page to help support her financially and help pay her transport costs from her home to the hospital.
To donate to Matilda’s care, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/r2arv-matilda-mais-tga-journey to donate.
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