Lyndsey Wright didn’t get to hold her newborn baby boy until four days after he was born.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The “little fighter” was born in 2014 but immediately whisked to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne to undergo gruelling open heart surgery.
Finn was born with congenital heart disease and has lived with a hampered heart all of his life.
He has spent weeks in hospital, splitting his time between the Launceston General Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital for routine visits – and some that weren’t so routine.
“I wasn’t coping well, I was trying to figure out all the things you do as a new mother but then sometimes Finn would turn blue, so off to the hospital we’d go,” she said.
Finn has undergone three open heart surgeries in his young life, but came out the other side, with the third surgery completed in May.
Mrs Wright said she wanted to share her story to celebrate her son’s recovery and to show other parents there is still hope.
“It might seem really dark at times, but there is light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
Finn was diagnosed with heart problems when Mrs Wright was five months pregnant.
She said she knew something was wrong the moment her phone began to ring.
“I’m a podiatrist at the hospital [LGH] so I know that it’s never a good thing when they ring,” she said.
The growth scan had picked up abnormalities with Finn’s heart so Lyndsey was sent off to Melbourne for a fetal echogram and amniocentesis.
“I was terrified, I had heard about amniocentesis and didn’t want to do it, but when I got there [to Melbourne] they basically said if you don’t have this he [Finn] might die,” she said.
Extensive testing revealed two abnormalities in Finn’s little heart.
He was diagnosed with hypoplastic right ventricle and double inlet left ventricle.
A double inlet left ventricle refers to an instance where both atriums of the heart are connected to the left ventricle, or chamber of the heart.
A hypoplastic right ventricle refers to a small ventricle, or one that is underdeveloped.
These defects of the heart cause inadequate blood flow to the lungs, which results in the babies turning regularly blue, or being born blue.
Mrs Wright said learning to be a new mother and dealing with a child with congenital heart disease took a toll on her mental health.
“I was learning about all those things, such as when kids get constipation and gas, but sometimes it would affect Finn’s oxygen levels and we’d be back to the hospital.”
Finn’s second surgery was completed when he was three months old and Lyndsey lived in provided accommodation across the road from the hospital for those first three months.
“It was really hard and isolating, you didn’t feel the same as other mothers,” she said.
“I didn’t want to be happy and so I didn’t allow anyone else to be happy either.”
Mrs Wright said those first three months were very difficult but it was through the support of her family and friends that got her through.
Her friends at the hospital put her onto a support program called Heart Kids, who assisted her with accommodation and provided support from people who had gone through similar situations.
In addition, she received some funding from The Examiner’s David Chaplin Memorial Trust.
David Chaplin was a 20-month old baby, who, in the 1960s was diagnosed with a severe heart condition and given four weeks left to life.
He was eligible for lifesaving surgery in the United States and The Examiner called for donations from the community to assist the family with travel and surgery costs.
The donations came flooding in but unfortunately, little David succumbed to his disease on arrival in the US.
The David Chaplin Memorial Trust was set up in his name to assist other families with kids suffering heart conditions.
Mrs Wright describes herself as a “typical Scot” who always had a glass half empty – when it came to her son’s recovery and also the second time she fell pregnant with her daughter Rosslyn.
“It was really difficult the second time around, to go through all of that again,” she said.
“But I couldn’t bear the thought of Finny being along and not having a brother or sister.”
Rosslyn, 2, arrived when her brother was two years old and still had another open heart surgery on his horizon.
She is boisterous and bosses her brother around like only little sisters can do.
Finn is protective of his little sister and cares for her fiercely, like the little fighter his parents have always named him.
Mrs Wright said her son is “like a different boy” after coming out of his third surgery.
She said their family finally can relax and Finn can keep up with his friends – and his little sister.
“It was heartbreaking, because he would always be trying to keep up with his friends, but he would always be breathless,” Mrs Wright said.
“But now he is like a completely different boy.”
She said she wanted to thank the people who had taken time to care for Finn during the past four years.
“For a remote place like Tasmania we are lucky to have the medical professionals we have and have access to hospitals like the one in Melbourne.”
“We are very lucky in this place to have the access and the support we needed.”
She also had one message for other parents going through similar situations:
“You can get through this.”