Parent's horror as baby daughter's fingers fall off in the bath after suffering a stroke in the womb

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By VT

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The parents of a baby girl who survived a stroke in the womb are speaking out about their daughter's "biggest, brightest smile" despite the many challenges she has faced in her short life.

When 27-year-old Amy Cawley was 34-weeks pregnant, she became concerned that she had not felt her baby more in three days. Previous scans showed her unborn daughter was small, but this had not concerned the doctors.

However, after receiving another scan at Poole Hospital, Dorset, England, Amy was told her baby's heart rate was very low and that she required an emergency c-section.

Amy recalled: "They told me afterward if they had waited another 48 hours, Darcie wouldn’t have made it. It was so scary to think how close we’d come to losing her."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

On December 9, 2019, Darcie-May Ferris was born weighing 4lb 7oz to proud parents Amy and 26-year-old prison officer Alex Ferris.

Sadly, moments after Darcie arrived, medics noticed that both her arms were discolored and covered in black birthmark-like lesions. Father Alex said: "The atmosphere in the room after she was delivered was very strange. They told us her arms didn’t look normal."

They transferred Darcie to neo-natal intensive care and then transferred to Southampton General Hospital, in Hampshire, where specialist staff were more equipped to deal with burns and skin grafts.

Amy and Alex - still unable to hold their newborn daughter - were later told that Darcie had suffered a stroke in the womb, which was caused by a blood clot traveling from her shoulder.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

Amy said: "We don’t know why it happened or whether it could happen again if Darcie has a baby sister or brother.

"I had my placenta tested to see if it could be a genetic problem, but the tests did not come back with anything.

"Darcie was very heavily sedated for the first 10 days of her life, so she was not in pain, but she was in an incubator which made it really difficult because we couldn’t hold her.

"We couldn’t cuddle her until she was eight days old which was so hard. We wanted desperately to bond with her, but not being able to touch her made it more difficult."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

As a result of the clots, Darcie was placed on medication in an attempt to thin her blood and break up the clots. At first, it seemed like the treatment was working, as Darcie's left arm started to go back to its normal color a couple of weeks after she was born. However, it was too late for the fingers on her left hand.

Alex explained: "Her thumb and index finger on her left hand were okay, but she had three black fingers, and it became clear they were not going to last."

One of the parent's most difficult moments came when some of Darcie's fingers fell off as they were giving her a bath. Alex recalled:

"We had to let them fall off. In fact, we were bathing her one day and a couple of her fingers just fell off. We had been expecting it to happen, but it was horrible, and we didn’t really know how to deal with it.

"Her fingers looked like little sultanas.

“Her first operation was to have those tidied up when she was six weeks old. The skin had come away and left the bone, so the surgeon had to trim the bone back to allow the skin to heal over it."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

The focus then turned to Darcie’s right arm, which didn't appear to be healing as well as the left.

"It wasn’t clear what the best option would be – either to amputate or to play the waiting game and see if it healed itself, because a baby’s skin has a better ability to heal than an adult’s," Alex said, adding: "The surgeons decided to leave it a bit longer, but it was awful because her skin was a greeny-grey color. The skin had gone necrotic, which is where the tissue and cells start to die, and smelled really bad."

Then came some good news. After spending Christmas and New Year's in hospital, Alex and Amy were finally allowed to bring baby Darcie home in January.

However, the family was not out of the woods. Back home, they continued to change their daughter's dressings every day, and would have still have to go into hospital for weekly appointments, where doctors monitored Darcie’s progress and carried out gradual amputations on her right arm.

Alex said surgeons chose not to remove Darcie's whole arm in one go because they were hopeful that the skin would heal itself, and they wanted to give her as much length as possible.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

Amy said: "The worst thing was if she was going to have an amputation, she would have to fast from 2am the day before and she didn’t understand that, obviously. She just knew she was hungry and not getting fed.

"We did that for four weeks, and they were gradually making her right arm shorter. The fingers on her right hand had been dead for so long that they fused into her palm, so it was like one big block of dead skin."

After six operations, baby Darcie now has just her thumb and index finger on her left hand, and her right arm has been amputated from the forearm. Sadly, she will still need to undergo further operations on her right arm until the deteriorated skin is completely removed and replaced with healthy skin grafts.

Now, Darcie-May's parents are looking to the future and are focusing on physiotherapy. To help with the costs of her ongoing care, they have set up a GoFundMe, which has raised currently raised more than £6,200 from friends, family, and well-wishers of their £10,000 target.

Alex said: "There are a lot of unknowns at the moment. We don’t know how much movement she will have in her arms, or whether it will affect her ability to crawl.

"We also don’t know what the impact the stroke will have had until she starts to develop and to learn, so now we’re trying to fundraise via GoFundMe to help her lead as normal a life as possible."

You can donate to help the family by visiting their GoFundMe HERE.

Speaking about his daughter's future using prosthetic limbs, Alex added: "We want to give her the option to have prosthetic limbs when she’s a bit older. The NHS prosthetics are very basic, but there are some amazing prosthetics out there which have grip and movement."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

But despite all she has faced, Darcie is still a bright and bubbly baby who is adored by her parents and siblings.

"Darcie is the most amazing little girl with a beautiful smile. She’s developing a little personality now. She knows what she wants and behaves like a little diva," Alex said, adding:

"Her big sisters adore her, and are not fazed by her hands and arms at all. It’s nice that she has them to look out for her, but I think with what she’s gone through, she’s going to have a really thick skin and be able to hold her own."

We wish the family all the best for their future!

Parent's horror as baby daughter's fingers fall off in the bath after suffering a stroke in the womb

vt-author-image

By VT

Article saved!Article saved!

The parents of a baby girl who survived a stroke in the womb are speaking out about their daughter's "biggest, brightest smile" despite the many challenges she has faced in her short life.

When 27-year-old Amy Cawley was 34-weeks pregnant, she became concerned that she had not felt her baby more in three days. Previous scans showed her unborn daughter was small, but this had not concerned the doctors.

However, after receiving another scan at Poole Hospital, Dorset, England, Amy was told her baby's heart rate was very low and that she required an emergency c-section.

Amy recalled: "They told me afterward if they had waited another 48 hours, Darcie wouldn’t have made it. It was so scary to think how close we’d come to losing her."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

On December 9, 2019, Darcie-May Ferris was born weighing 4lb 7oz to proud parents Amy and 26-year-old prison officer Alex Ferris.

Sadly, moments after Darcie arrived, medics noticed that both her arms were discolored and covered in black birthmark-like lesions. Father Alex said: "The atmosphere in the room after she was delivered was very strange. They told us her arms didn’t look normal."

They transferred Darcie to neo-natal intensive care and then transferred to Southampton General Hospital, in Hampshire, where specialist staff were more equipped to deal with burns and skin grafts.

Amy and Alex - still unable to hold their newborn daughter - were later told that Darcie had suffered a stroke in the womb, which was caused by a blood clot traveling from her shoulder.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

Amy said: "We don’t know why it happened or whether it could happen again if Darcie has a baby sister or brother.

"I had my placenta tested to see if it could be a genetic problem, but the tests did not come back with anything.

"Darcie was very heavily sedated for the first 10 days of her life, so she was not in pain, but she was in an incubator which made it really difficult because we couldn’t hold her.

"We couldn’t cuddle her until she was eight days old which was so hard. We wanted desperately to bond with her, but not being able to touch her made it more difficult."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

As a result of the clots, Darcie was placed on medication in an attempt to thin her blood and break up the clots. At first, it seemed like the treatment was working, as Darcie's left arm started to go back to its normal color a couple of weeks after she was born. However, it was too late for the fingers on her left hand.

Alex explained: "Her thumb and index finger on her left hand were okay, but she had three black fingers, and it became clear they were not going to last."

One of the parent's most difficult moments came when some of Darcie's fingers fell off as they were giving her a bath. Alex recalled:

"We had to let them fall off. In fact, we were bathing her one day and a couple of her fingers just fell off. We had been expecting it to happen, but it was horrible, and we didn’t really know how to deal with it.

"Her fingers looked like little sultanas.

“Her first operation was to have those tidied up when she was six weeks old. The skin had come away and left the bone, so the surgeon had to trim the bone back to allow the skin to heal over it."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

The focus then turned to Darcie’s right arm, which didn't appear to be healing as well as the left.

"It wasn’t clear what the best option would be – either to amputate or to play the waiting game and see if it healed itself, because a baby’s skin has a better ability to heal than an adult’s," Alex said, adding: "The surgeons decided to leave it a bit longer, but it was awful because her skin was a greeny-grey color. The skin had gone necrotic, which is where the tissue and cells start to die, and smelled really bad."

Then came some good news. After spending Christmas and New Year's in hospital, Alex and Amy were finally allowed to bring baby Darcie home in January.

However, the family was not out of the woods. Back home, they continued to change their daughter's dressings every day, and would have still have to go into hospital for weekly appointments, where doctors monitored Darcie’s progress and carried out gradual amputations on her right arm.

Alex said surgeons chose not to remove Darcie's whole arm in one go because they were hopeful that the skin would heal itself, and they wanted to give her as much length as possible.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

Amy said: "The worst thing was if she was going to have an amputation, she would have to fast from 2am the day before and she didn’t understand that, obviously. She just knew she was hungry and not getting fed.

"We did that for four weeks, and they were gradually making her right arm shorter. The fingers on her right hand had been dead for so long that they fused into her palm, so it was like one big block of dead skin."

After six operations, baby Darcie now has just her thumb and index finger on her left hand, and her right arm has been amputated from the forearm. Sadly, she will still need to undergo further operations on her right arm until the deteriorated skin is completely removed and replaced with healthy skin grafts.

Now, Darcie-May's parents are looking to the future and are focusing on physiotherapy. To help with the costs of her ongoing care, they have set up a GoFundMe, which has raised currently raised more than £6,200 from friends, family, and well-wishers of their £10,000 target.

Alex said: "There are a lot of unknowns at the moment. We don’t know how much movement she will have in her arms, or whether it will affect her ability to crawl.

"We also don’t know what the impact the stroke will have had until she starts to develop and to learn, so now we’re trying to fundraise via GoFundMe to help her lead as normal a life as possible."

You can donate to help the family by visiting their GoFundMe HERE.

Speaking about his daughter's future using prosthetic limbs, Alex added: "We want to give her the option to have prosthetic limbs when she’s a bit older. The NHS prosthetics are very basic, but there are some amazing prosthetics out there which have grip and movement."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Real Life]]

But despite all she has faced, Darcie is still a bright and bubbly baby who is adored by her parents and siblings.

"Darcie is the most amazing little girl with a beautiful smile. She’s developing a little personality now. She knows what she wants and behaves like a little diva," Alex said, adding:

"Her big sisters adore her, and are not fazed by her hands and arms at all. It’s nice that she has them to look out for her, but I think with what she’s gone through, she’s going to have a really thick skin and be able to hold her own."

We wish the family all the best for their future!