Rumer's Story, part 6

Echo & MRI results

Tuesday 26th May 2015
21 weeks pregnant

We were shown into the quiet room by Dr Cook, where we were joined by Evan Marshall and a cardiac liaison nurse who was introduced to us as June Winter.

Professor Marshall explained the scan findings: our baby had her heart shifted to the right side and rotated. Her left ventricle was around half the size of her right, whereas they should be roughly equal. She also had a narrowed aortic arch through which the blood flow was reversed, and she had two superior vena cavae ('bilateral SVCs'). All embryos start with two, but by this gestation you would expect one to have disappeared. He drew a lot of sketches.

Rumer's Story, part 5

MRI scan and echocardiogram

Friday 22nd to Tuesday 26th May 2015
21 weeks pregnant

We spent the weekend googling information on Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) and calling family to update them. We were both worried and surprisingly normal. I remember reading all the survivors' stories on the CDH website and then braving reading the stories of the non-survivors and crying. It was a long bank holiday weekend.