Paul, Clare and baby Chloe present their cheque to Dr Heuchan and Dr Bhattacharya.

Short-circuit
It results in a short-circuit of communications between the arteries and blood vessels in the brain, causing too much blood to flow to the brain and putting huge strain on the heart.
All that extra blood goes straight to one single vein in the skull — the vein of Galen — which becomes markedly enlarged and can lead to brain damage, heart and organ failure. In Chloe’s case, if left untreated she wouldn’t have survived.
There was no alternative. 
Despite the huge risks because of her age and tiny size, she had to be operated on. 
The highly specialised and delicate nature of the surgery required to treat VGAM means only two hospitals in the UK can perform the procedure — Great Ormond Street in London and the Queen Mother’s Neonatal Unit at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill in Glasgow.
Excellent
Chloe’s doctors in Nottingham had no hesitation in contacting the Queen Mother’s because of the excellent care their patients had received in the past. When the Glasgow team got the call on Christmas Eve they knew they couldn’t refuse and rapidly got their expert team together. 
That decision made, they had to get Chloe to Glasgow as soon as possible. By sheer chance an RAF Sea King helicopter was in the Nottingham area and the crew were alerted to Chloe’s situation.
They immediately swung into action, saying they were more than happy to help out by treating the emergency as an exercise and flying the baby to Glasgow.
So it was that Chloe spent her first Christmas Eve thundering north through the winter skies — just too young to be keeping an excited eye out for Santa — and blissfully unaware that mum and dad were making the long haul to Glasgow by ambulance.
Clare’s doctors in Nottingham had advised her against the seven-hour trip so soon after 
her Caesarean, but she simply couldn’t sit at home while her daughter faced life-saving surgery 300 miles away.
“There was no way I could stay put,” said Clare. “I had to be with her. Chloe got to Glasgow in just three hours but we had a long, long time in that ambulance to think about how she was and what lay ahead for her.”
Complicated 
What did lie ahead was a specialised medical team led by interventional radiologist Dr Jo Bhattacharya, one of only two people in the UK who can carry out the complicated procedure.
There were no guarantees. Chloe was the youngest and by far the smallest patient Dr Bhattacharya had ever treated and it was the longest operation he’d ever done. Her condition was complicated by her prematurity so she required round-the-clock intensive care from the rest of the team.
“Dr Bhattacharya told us there was a 25 per cent chance of her surviving the night,” remembers Paul. “We were so far from family and friends and that just made everything so much more difficult.”
The Christmas Eve operation meant sealing off her vein of Galen, closing the misleading lines of communication. However, getting there meant using a long road for a shortcut — Dr Bhattacharya passed a tiny tube through Chloe’s groin, into her arteries and up into her brain. Once there, he superglued the vein closed.
The extraordinary procedure was repeated a week later on New Year’s Eve. Both operations went well but even after the second one, Chloe’s chances were only 50-50. 
Hi-tech 
Dr Bhattacharya had done what he could and now it was up to her.
The first two operations were, effectively, hi-tech and incredibly sophisticated sticking plasters — short-term fixes to keep Chloe alive until she grew big enough to safely undergo the full procedure.
“They were emergency situations,” Dr Bhattacharya explained. “With Chloe being so small, the important thing was to take things as gently as possible.
“She couldn’t have tolerated a longer operation so we initially did it in two stages, buying time for her to grow until we could safely proceed with the preferred treatment. I prefer children to be five or six months old for that.”
That final operation — which involved sealing the vein with tiny platinum coils and a final dose of superglue — took place in Yorkhill two weeks ago and was hugely successful. An MRI scan showed the vein was completely sealed and there’s no brain damage or evidence of heart failure. Chloe is now expected to live a normal life.
“Without the two hospitals, she wouldn’t be here today,” said Paul. “Dr Bhattacharya did a fantastic job, absolutely amazing. He came into the hospital on Christmas Day and Boxing Day just to see how she was.
“All the thanks in the world wouldn’t be enough for what they have done.”
Paul’s parents held a coffee morning in their home village in Nottinghamshire and raised an amazing £1100 in just two hours, the cash being split between Nottingham City and the Neonatal Intensive Care Department at the Queen Mother’s, Yorkhill. The Whites’ fund-raising endeavours match the incredible effort shown by you as money continues to pour into our campaign.
On the Yorkhill wish-list is a hi-tech 4D scanner which would have considerably eased the complicated work carried out by Dr Bhattacharya and his team. 
Clearer 
“The new scanner will give us a much clearer picture of the VGAM, its size, how it affects the surrounding brain, the heart and the other body organs,” explains consultant neonatologist Dr Anne-Marie Heuchan. 
“The new 4D imaging will allow us to see the abnormal communicating vessels in ways that haven’t previously been possible, helping us to identify the blood vessels that have to be blocked before the first operation.
“As one of the few centres that provide this type of life-saving care we really need to have cutting- edge imaging equipment to enable us to add to what is already known about this condition and to improve the chances of a good outcome for all babies coming to Glasgow with this condition.”
Dr Bhattacharya did an incredible job in saving Chloe’s life with the odds stacked against them both. The new scanner that our appeal hopes to buy will improve those odds considerably for many other babies with a wide range of life-threatening conditions.
Our world-class medical teams deserve world-class equipment so they can save even more lives like Chloe’s. 
Let’s do what we can to help them.

IF YOU have a special reason for contributing to or raising funds for our appeal then we’d like to hear from you. 
It could be that you’d like to thank caring staff for the treatment they’ve provided in your hour of need. Or perhaps a relative spent time in one of Scotland’s children’s hospitals and the experience has left a lasting impression on your family’s life.
Whatever the reason, please let us know. 
We’d be delighted to share your experiences with our readers. And, who knows, it may inspire others to follow in your fund-raising footsteps.

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