Willing to go through hell and back for Caragh

The first 12 months of baby Caragh Cohill's life have been quite a journey for both her and her parents Maureen and Michael. Having been born at just 25 weeks, weighing the equivalent of half a bag of sugar, Caragh survived the first eight weeks of her life with the assistance of tubes and oxygen masks. If that was not bad enough, she developed sepsis while in intensive care ... so for her to come through that unscathed has been quite the journey.

On May 19, Caragh celebrated her first birthday at her home in Saula on Achill Island and mum Maureen McGinty says it was a very special milestone for all the family.

“It has been such a quick year. It was so nice even to put a candle in a cake for her. Seeing her opening her presents and pulling at the wrapping like any other baby. It was a really nice day,” she told The Mayo News.

Caragh's was Maureen and Michael's first baby and everything seemed fine until she went for a routine 20 week scan in University Hospital Galway, where she worked as a nurse. She was told to return in two weeks when another scan showed abnormalities in the blood flow to the placenta.

The following morning Maureen was transferred by ambulance to the Coombe Hospital in Dublin where she was told that her baby would have to be delivered and it was just a question of when.

A week later, a scan showed the blood flow to Caragh had gone into reverse so on May 19, 2023, Caragh was born weighing just 521 grams or one pound three ounces.

“She was teeny tiny. When she was delivered that day I could not believe how small she was. When she was delivered they got Michael to put his hand up against her on the incubator and she was just the length of Michael's hand,” Maureen recalls.

As soon as Caragh was born, she was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit.

Different world

“Once you go through the doors of the intensive care unit it is a different world. There are machines, there's beeping and very unwell babies through those doors. Honestly the first time I saw her in the incubator I got such a fright because she was just so tiny. There was a sense of hopelessness at the start because we couldn't do anything,” she explained.

For Maureen and Michael, the first few weeks were very difficult with doctors telling them not to look too far forward as Caragh battled for survival.

With their immediate families in Achill and Clifden respectively, they were in a vulnerable place and all alone in Dublin. Finding a place to stay in a city with a housing crisis was the last thing they needed.

Thankfully, the social service workers in the Coombe set them up with Hugh's House, a charity which provides family accommodation for parents who have ill children in Temple Street, Holles Street, The Coombe and Rotunda Hospitals.

It was a godsend for Maureen and Michael.

“Hugh's House took so much stress off us,” she said. “Once we were given that room we were told not to worry about any other accommodation and we would have that room until the day we left Dublin with Caragh. It took so much stress off us and they never asked us for one penny.

“We never thought we would be in this position. Obviously for the first few days you are trying to wrap your head around what was happening. After being in the hospital all day, it was really nice to stay there with other families who are going through the same thing as you and chat with them. You listen to other people's stories and chat to somebody who has been through that ... they give you hope,” Maureen commented.

When Caragh was born her lungs were not fully developed and after three days she was placed on a ventilator to regulate her breathing.

“Obviously it is not a nice sight to see your baby ventilated but it did her the world of good and after two days she took the tube out herself. She was after telling them 'enough is enough'.”

As the weeks progressed, Caragh started to thrive and after eight weeks of being fed through tubes and given oxygen through masks, she was now ready to eat and breathe on her own.

“I will never forget the day when I went in and they had taken everything off her face and she looked so different. We never saw her properly between masks and tubes for eight weeks. Since then she never looked back.”

Journey home

On August 20, seven days before her actual due date, Maureen and Michael were able to bring Caragh home to Achill for the first time.

“It was crazy walking out of the hospital with her ... it was all so surreal,” Maureen admits.

“We waited so long to get her home that when the day came we were asking the doctors and nurses are you sure we can take her? When we came home all of our neighbours were out waving and with balloons and it was so nice.

“We were so lucky to be able to bring Caragh home. We met parents in Dublin who did not get to bring their babies home so it was a bit bittersweet thinking of all those other people.”

Maureen and Michael and their families will be forever grateful to the medical staff in Galway and the Coombe Hospital for all they did in identifying the initial problem and ensuring she survived.

As a gesture of their gratitude, Maureen and 38 of her friends and family, known as ‘Caragh's Crew’ will be heading to Wicklow this Saturday, June 8 to take part in the Hell and Back Challenge adventure race, to raise funds for the NICU at the Coombe Hospital and Hugh's House.

“When we were leaving Dublin we said we would always fundraise and give back to them. They never asked us for a penny and they were always there for us. All our family were down here and it would have been a real struggle for us without the help and support we received from the Coombe Hospital staff and everyone in Hugh's House. They became our second family,” she explained.

The Hell and Back Challenge is quite apt as it is what both Maureen and Michael went through in the first few months of Caragh's life but now she has come through on the other side.

“She is such a happy child. She is always happy laughing away and she's nearly crawling now. She is just like any other child and a pleasure to bring her anywhere. She's a great girl and we are so proud of her.”

To make a donation to Friends of Coombe and Hugh's House, visit the iDonate page.