Bodhi and Felix

Bodhi and Felix

You never think it’ll happen to your own family, until it does. Bodhi and Felix were born in the early hours of August 20th 2025 at 26+3 weeks. Weighing a tiny 1lb 7oz and 2lb 2oz, they were cared for in Southampton Hospital to begin with.

The first couple of days seemed to be positive, they’d both been taken off of the ventilator and put onto CPAP. Until we got a phone call early one morning when the boys were 2 days old. ‘Felix has deteriorated, we have intubated him but you need to get here right now’. Felix had suffered a tension pneumothorax – a hole in his lung which meant the oxygen they were giving him was filling his chest cavity. Doctors warned us that he may not make it, and if he did, because Felix went for a long period of time with low oxygen, they couldn’t tell us what repercussions this would have on him. We were prepared for the worst. Watching while doctors put 3 chest tubes in to try and pull the air out of his chest cavity quicker than the oxygen was going in. The first day we had to take it hour by hour.

Then as the days went by it got slightly more positive. It was working. The dense air in his chest cavity was becoming less and less. The anxiety we both had when doctors said they were going to start taking the drains out one by one. The final drain was removed on the 7th September and Felix was able to have his first cuddle a couple of days later. After this, Felix progressed really well with no further problems.

Luckily for us, while Felix was poorly, Bodhi was doing well. And then they swapped. We learnt that he had a blood vessel in his heart that had failed to shut after birth. (PDA) It’s really common in premature babies and most of the time medication will close it. The medication didn’t work but at this point Bodhi had to be put back on a ventilator as he had an infection which was making him really tired. Getting the infection sorted was more important than the PDA. Slowly he got over the infection but he was still unable to come off of the ventilator just yet.

We then reached a point Luke had to start going back to Guernsey Monday – Friday for work as we still had our mortgage to pay. On the night that he left, I had to call him to say Bodhi had a trapped bit of bowel which needed emergency surgery. Surgery went well. For a time, it was a struggle to get Bodhi off of the ventilator, his oxygen requirement was really high, and now his heart rate started jumping all over the place. Doctors tried everything to regulate his heart rate, they even put ice packs on him to try and shock it back into a normal rhythm and we even agreed to give him medication for it.

It was then decided that his PDA could have been causing it, previous medications to try and close it hadn’t worked so the next option was to have it ligated (it’s basically a clip put in it to keep it closed). This was done successfully but Bodhi’s heart rate was still all over the place. After multiple ECGS we were told he will need medication for SVTS (a heart condition where your heart suddenly beats much faster). Over time, Bodhi’s oxygen requirement came down and he was able to come off of the ventilator. After that he quickly progressed onto bubble CPAP, CPAP and then onto vapotherm.

After a total of almost 11 weeks, we were then moved to Salisbury. At this point Felix was taken off of all oxygen, and Bodhi was on low flow. After nearly 3 weeks in Salisbury, we were all flown back to Guernsey where the boys were in Special Care Umit for a couple of weeks. Bodhi came home on oxygen.

Both the boys have done so well since coming home, Bodhi was taken off of oxygen, his heart medication is no longer needed. We have since found that he has Hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain), this is currently being monitored and it’s something which hopefully will sort itself out as he gets older without any intervention. Felix is also doing really well, you’d never know he was so poorly. Both of them are absolutely thriving!

While in Southampton we were able to stay in Frankie’s Den. Being so close to the hospital made it all so much easier for us, especially when you get the phone call to say you need to get there ASAP. 100 steps and you are at the hospital entrance. A flat where you can escape to which feels like home. Spending so much time in the hospital but knowing you don’t have far to go when you leave. 

We will be forever grateful for all that PPBF did to help and support us.

To donate to the PPBF’s Buy-A-Night campaign to help families like Hannah’s who need to seek specialist off-island care, please click here.