Helensburgh Advertiser | News | Sam's 'miracle' birthday

Wednesday, 7th January, 2009

Published: Thursday, 30th November, 2006 11:04

Sam's 'miracle' birthday

By Frances Ridge

ON a cold December night last year Sam Kennedy helped put up the family's Christmas tree — but the next night she was hooked up to a drip and given 24 hours to live.

Sam's family were used to her being in hospital following asthma attacks but they never imagined her illness could be life-threatening.

`I couldn't even put it into words how I felt at the time, it was just so horrific,` her mum Anne Kennedy remembers.

`I felt as if my heart was failing along with Sam's — my heart was slowly breaking.`

Anne, 48 and her husband Robert, 51, were used to dealing with asthma as four of their six children had the illness but it was their only daughter, Sam, who suffered the most.

Anne said: `When she hit her teens it seemed to get worse and the last three or four years she was in and out of hospital all the time. Last year she had been in every month from June until September and had to be ventilated five times.`

But the family, who live in Rhu, could not have prepared themselves for the events of last December.

Anne continued: `She was taken into Paisley's Royal Alexandra Hospital on Friday, December 9 and went downhill so quickly that they had to ventilate her.

`But when we went to visit her the next day she was opening her eyes and smiling, she seemed a lot better. We headed home after the nurses reassured us that Sam would be alright but on the way home my mobile started to ring and it was the hospital asking if all the family could come up right away as she was critical.

`It was unbelievable what was happening. When we went back to the hospital they kept saying she wouldn't make it — I still get upset even thinking about that moment, it was such a dreadful time for all the family.`

Sam had suffered multiple organ failure and a priest gave her the Last Rights. Her family were asked by doctors to agree that Sam should not be resuscitated as they had done eveything possible for her.

Anne said: `Even although we were told that she was not going to make it I was disagreeing and wouldn't listen, I couldn't believe what they were saying.`

But by the Tuesday Sam was still fighting for her life and her condition was not deteriorating. Medical staff urged her exhausted parents to go home and sleep — but they were woken at home by the telephone and doctors telling them to hurry back to the hospital.

Anne said: `She had multiple organ failure and was put on dialysis, once again we were told to expect the worst. It went on for another five weeks but eventually she was making small improvements and was taken off the ventilator and moved to high dependency.

`She was then moved to the Vale of Leven Hospital and because she knew the staff we noticed a big improvement in her. She started physiotherapy and when she got a bit of movement back she moved onto a Zimmer and the nurses started taking her out walks.`

Following nearly two months in hospital Sam was allowed back home to her parents and brothers — Paul, 26, David, 25, Alan, 24, John 23, and Gary 20 — but her fight wasn't over.

Her mum Anne said: `We had a lot of help, an occupational therapist came in and bathed her and we had a bath seat put in and handles added next to the doors.

`Then she started losing her hair and her nails started breaking, because she had multiple organ failure the body repairs all the damaged organs first and ignores everything else.

`Her hair was her pride and joy but she didn't let it get her down, we got her a few wigs and she wore them until it started growing back. She is amazing, she has a great outlook and never moans about what she has been through.`

Courageous Sam has to have a syringe driver in her stomach 24 hours a day to feed her medication, but she refuses to let her problems affect her life and started studying for an HNC in Healthcare at Clydebank College in August, and last week she threw a huge birthday bash to celebrate her 21st.

But the family have one date they are looking forward to the most — Christmas day.

Anne said: `Sam said to me the other day, 'Mum, this will be the first Christmas I've been able to celebrate in a couple of years' and she was so happy, the past two years she has been in hospital so this will be a special Christmas.`

She added: `I couldn't praise the Vale, or any hospital, enough, because without them Sam wouldn't be here today, it is a miracle.`

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