By: Claire Corrigan
Eighteen years ago, premature baby Amy Temple from Mullingar was fighting for her life in a Dublin hospital but things could not be more different now for Amy, who explains she is due to sit for her Leaving Cert in Limerick in the coming year and although undecided, is leaning towards studying Psychology.
Amy was born at 27 weeks in July, 2001, at the National Maternity Hospital, (Holles Street Hospital) in Dublin her dad, Graham Temple explained to Topic, as he looked back over the years and described an extraordinary story.
Her survival in the critical early period and the great progress she has made since then can be attributed to the work of the dedicated staff of Crumlin Children’s Hospital as well as the work of all the doctors at Intensive Care, Special Babies Unit in Holles Street Hospital, and most of all to the ongoing dedication and efforts of her parents over the years.
“She was born perfect and there were no problems at all. Then we got a call one day saying that we needed to get to hospital immediately to be matched for blood for Amy because she had developed an infection which affected her blood. This was followed by a bleed, they called it a grade 4 which was the highest bleed you could have, in her head. It was the equivalent of an adult having a major stroke. I was very negative about her prognosis at the time as she was in isolation and was on a ventilator. The infection was attacking all her vital organs.”
Graham said that top specialists in their fields from around the country were coming to see the tiny baby twice a week. “We had a top heart doctor come to see her and we also had an eye doctor come to examine her, because her eyesight was affected.
“They told us that she was going to die basically. They said that they had tried all the antibiotics and that they were going to try just one more. There was a delivery every other day of platelets and blood for transfusions for this little tiny infant. The last antibiotic they said they would try was ciprofloxacin, which was the only cure for anthrax.
Graham, who is a former taxi driver and now works as a sports commentator, said that, at this point, he had resigned himself to the fact that his daughter was going to die. Meanwhile, Amy’s mother, Patsy, refused to consider the possibility that she would not make it. “The doctors even pulled me to one side and told me to tell my wife that it was not looking good for Amy. I had lost all hope at this point.”
PRAYERS ANSWERED
The family gathered around the little girl’s bedside to say goodbye but would soon discover their prayers were being answered. “We got a call in the morning to say that her white blood cell count had improved. She got better after that.”
Amy had to spend a further two months at the hospital, and had been at Holles Street for three months in total.
The little girl was finally brought home by her parents but they soon discovered she was not ‘out of the woods’ yet.
“Everyone makes half a litre of brain fluid a day which drains down through your spinal chord. However, because the blood from Amy’s bleed also went down this drain, it became blocked and her head suddenly swelled. She was rushed to hospital for an emergency operation. Hydrocephalus is a build-up of fluid on the brain. They had to insert a drain into her head, which she still has, and run a tube down her neck inside and attach it to her intestines to drain away. The drain blocked again a number of times subsequently which meant more serious operations to replace the drain to be done in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin. This hasn’t re-occurred since she was four or five,” he explained.
ON TELEVISION
While at the hospital, RTÉ happened to be filming a documentary about babies in the special care unit and the producers asked the Temples if they could include Amy’s story.
In 2003, Unit 8 was watched by hundreds of thousands of viewers touching the heart of the nation and Amy’s story featured in several national newspapers. “The first episode finished with Amy’s life hanging in the balance and the RTÉ and Holles Street switchboard was jammed all night with people who could not sleep and ringing in to see if Amy was okay. It really captured the hearts and imagination of everyone in the country.”
Graham said that following the documentary, locals would approach him constantly to ask about Amy. “Even now, I get asked ‘How is that little girl?’
A year later, Amy featured on another episode of the series called ‘Milestones’ during which the Temples spoke to a brain surgeon about her progress. “He was very positive about the outcome for Amy. We were still concerned because she had been premature.”
As she grew older, Graham and Patsy completed a course called the Hanen Programme, which enabled them to help improve their daughter’s speech at home. “She was not speaking so we learned how to teach her. I spent all day, every day with Amy, doing these exercises with her and trying to get her to talk and bringing her to various therapies.”
The little girl started to speak at about four years old and has progressed ever since. “The therapists in the Springfield Centre in the postnatal care unit for childreny realised that she needed various therapies such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, psychotherapy. One lady, Eileen, was extremely dedicated and really went the extra mile for Amy. They have amazing facilities at the centre,” he recalled.
It had been originally decided that Amy would attend a school that accommodated children with special needs, but because of the speed at which she was improving, “the Occupational Therapist, Eileen and myself decided that, because she was coming on so well, she would move to All Saints National School.”
ALWAYS DETERMINED
Graham continued that his daughter has always been extremely determined to ensure that she succeeds in anything to which she puts her mind.
“She wanted to play tennis at Mullingar Tennis Club and would miss the ball when she swung the racquet. For an hour she would run as fast as she could to get the ball again and just keep on trying. When she did hit it, it was like winning the world cup. Her determination is just astounding.”
Graham said that it was important to note that the infection their daughter endured as a baby did not effect her speech or her intellectual capacity. However, her mobility was affected.
Amy went on to enrol at St. Finian’s College, Mullingar where she was provided with her own SNA, and now attends school in Limerick. “It’s not a word I like to use, as really in every way Amy is normal. She is looking forward to college and has her friends. She has just astounded us. She’s now 18 and has became an adult and started to become more independent. We were all hoping for the best and now she has achieved so much, people just treat her like anyone else and she’s not given special allowances or anything like that. She is like anyone else who has never had to experience what she has endured. All her family and friends love her and just treat her like anyone else. We are extremely proud of her and she is proud of herself, more importantly. She’s happy. She has become a fine, independent lady,” he concluded.
