Stacey Hughes

I am Luke's mummy.

My beautiful baby boy was born on Wednesday 3rd December 2008. He was full term and weighed just under 7lb 5oz. His daddy and I were really excited about starting our new life as a family and we couldn't wait to bring Luke home and show him off to family and friends!

Unfortunately when Luke was born he was found to have a heart murmur and further tests revealed he had been born with a very serious heart condition, Aorta Stenosis. When he was just a day old Luke was transferred to Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital and the following day he had an operation to stretch a valve in his heart. His daddy and I were absolutely terrified but were overjoyed to find the operation had been a complete success.

We soon put the operation to the back of our minds as our little boy took everything in his stride and was doing fantastic. His stats improved, he was taken off his medication and we were told we could prepare to take Luke home. We were told the only thing keeping him in hospital was his feeding so we encouraged him to take his feeds.

On the day we expected to bring Luke home, when he was just 5 days old, his heart stopped working. We were at home getting his 'coming home' outfit and a few other bits ready when we received a call from the hospital asking us to come up immediately as Luke had deteriorated. By the time we got there it was too late, our baby's heart was only beating because the medics were making it.

We know the hospital did everything they could for Luke. We had been so grateful that they had saved his life and the nurses were always fantastic so it came as much as a shock to them when Luke's heart stopped.

Thankfully Luke was in a room of his own so we were able to spend some time with him and bathe and change his clothes in privacy before we moved to the bereavement suite. Once there he was layed in a beautiful crib and we took his hand and foot prints. A chaplain came and we baptised Luke. It was heartbreaking but our baby looked so peaceful and the surroundings were as beautiful as they could be at such a sad time.

We had such a short time with Luke but he gave us a joy that we had ever experienced before. The pain we feel is undescribable yet it is nothing compared to the happiness our baby brought us.

When Luke's heart stopped a large part of ours did too. He's now in heaven with the angels and although we are heartbroken I so very proud of my baby. He was so brave throughout all his time with us, in fact you would never have guessed his heart was failing, he didn't 'look sick', he never cried and he was always such a happy little boy.

I'm just so grateful for Luke. He has shown us the true meaning of eternal love and I know that in his five short days we were able to show him how much we love him. Sweet dreams to you, my beautiful scandanavian baby xx