LITTLE Alice Gee has been saved by life-saving medical staff at Glan Clwyd Hospital six times during her year-long stay in hospital.
Now the mother of the 13-month-old has hit out after Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board decided to axe longer term intensive care at the hospital.
Claire Ormrod, 26, of Ellis Avenue, Rhyl, said that without the trained staff at the hospital’s special care baby unit her ‘miracle’ baby would not be alive today.
She said: “Glan Clwyd have saved her life six times, she has had that many illnesses.
“Without the level of care at the hospital, she would have died. They picked up on her rare condition after just 10 days.
“She was born at 25 weeks and they ventilated her straight away.
“If she would have been transfered she would not have made it. Arrowe Park is too far.”
Alice, who has been left brain damaged after a bleed in her liver, also suffers from necrotizing enterocolitis which affects the lining of the intestinal wall and milk curd obstruction which causes neonatal bowel obstruction.
She has been treated in Alder Hey Hospital and in Birmingham, where she was less than two hours away from having her life-support machine turned off.
“She was so ill that we had to start arranging her funeral,” said mum-of-five Claire.
“They were going to turn off her life support machine, they said she couldn’t survive.
“One hour before they were about to turn it off she woke up, then she started breathing on her own.
“She is a miracle baby, she is a fighter.”
Alice, who weighed just 1lb 3oz when she was born, has been at home for the last month and spent Christmas with mum and dad Gareth, 36, a martial arts instructor, and siblings two-year-old Charlie, Jack, five and Molly, Seven
Brother Gareth, just five months old, was born after 29 weeks and has also been treated at SCBU.
Claire said: “The staff at Glan Clwyd kept asking about her even when she had been transfered.
“They get attached to the babies. They give everything to the babies.
“They need to keep the services at Glan Clwyd.
“It is a small unit but they do a lot of work.
“I don’t think the people that have made this decsision have looked at the impact it will have, not only on the babies but also that of the familes of these poorly children.”