Dad Recalls Thinking His 1-Year-Old Daughter Had Covid Before She Received a Heartbreaking Diagnosis in Emotional Interview
A father in England is recalling thinking his daughter, 15 months, had Covid before she received a heartbreaking diagnosis
Terry Archbold revealed on the U.K. show This Morning that his daughter, Bea, experienced "heart failure" and was diagnosed with a heart condition at just 15 months old
She's since had a heart transplant after having to wait in the hospital for 14 months for a donor after being fitted with an artificial organA father in England is speaking out about the moment he mistook his daughter's potentially fatal medical condition for Covid.
During an appearance on the Friday, July 18 episode of the U.K. show This Morning, police officer Terry Archbold said that his daughter Bea was born "fit" and "healthy" in 2021, before "she suddenly fell ill" and "deteriorated very, very quickly with heart failure" at just 15 months old.
Terry shared that the family had been on vacation to Florida, and his partner Cheryl and their other daughter had contracted Covid. So, when Bea fell ill, they assumed she might also have the virus.
Terry recalled, "We saw similar symptoms with Bea. Breathless, lethargic," adding that they weren't "overly concerned" at that point, but it "went on for a couple of days."
After the infant stopped drinking, her parents sought medical advice, and after an ambulance was sent to the home, they recommended she go to a local emergency room to get checked out.
"I expected her to be home in a couple of hours with antibiotics or whatever, never expecting to be told that they picked up a heart murmur, that she was in heart failure," Terry told hosts Dermot O'Leary and Sian Welby.
Bea was taken to the Freeman Hospital in the U.K. city of Newcastle upon Tyne, where she was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, Terry recalled.
Per the Mayo Clinic, "Dilated cardiomyopathy is a type of heart muscle disease that causes the heart chambers (ventricles) to thin and stretch, growing larger. It typically starts in the heart's main pumping chamber (left ventricle)."
"Dilated cardiomyopathy makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body," the site adds.
Little Bea, now 5, ended up having a Hickman line — which is a type of catheter that's fitted to help a patient receive medication, per the Cleveland Clinic — and her parents had then received a phone call to say they could visit their daughter and she was "doing well," Terry shared.
However, after they got to the hospital, "We heard alarms and we heard staff shouting for equipment," Terry remembered on the show, adding, "And Cheryl said to me, 'Will you look?' We knew it was Bea, we just knew."
He said that medics saved Bea by administering CPR after she went into cardiac arrest, but had then told them, "They said if she had another cardiac arrest, she would not make the night."
"The only hope she had would be to go on the urgent transplant list. And to get her there, she would need to have a Berlin heart," Terry said, referencing the artificial heart which Bea ended up having.
The little one ended up waiting 14 months in the hospital while she waited for a transplant, and Terry said the family had witnessed some tragic moments while there.
"Within the space of a week, both the children either side [of Bea's bed] passed," Terry shared.
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He said that the moment Bea received a transplant was "incredible," but he acknowledged the heartbreaking decision one family had to make to ensure that Bea lived.
"The reality is, we know what it meant to the other side so it's like living an endless torture," he recalled. "Every day wondering, 'Is this the day that we lose Bea? Is it her last day with us?' And enjoying every moment."
"And at the same time, very conscious of what it means for her to come home, that if she does, her life from that moment, every breath, everything she goes on to do is because of somebody else," Terry — who had previously made the difficult decision, along with Cheryl, to donate their stillborn daughter's heart — added.
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