It was a normal Saturday afternoon when the peace of Emma Hall’s home was broken by a blood-curdling shriek. She had been watching TV with her husband Malcolm when she noticed him slumped over on the sofa. Just an hour later, he was dead.
Emma’s screams alerted her teenage son to the nightmare unfolding in the living room. He watched on in horror as she frantically dialled 999. Malcolm, 52, was rushed to hospital but it was too late. The father-of-two was gone.
“It was so out of the blue and such a shock that even now I don’t know how much I’ve processed myself,” Emma, from Bredbury, Stockport, told the Manchester Evening News .
“Poor James heard me screaming on the phone and walked in on it. I think that’s something he will never get out of his mind.
“I’ve never been a single mother. Me and Malcolm would have been married 17 years this year. I was only 19 when I met him – it was all I’ve ever known.”
Malcolm passed away from a heart attack in March 2019. The tragedy came within one year of his children – James and Elizabeth – both having heart transplants. Care worker Emma believes he was suffering from stress over their ill-health.
James was just 12-years-old when he underwent the major operation. Emma first noticed something was wrong with him when he developed a rash as a baby.
Scans revealed the left-side of his heart was extremely enlarged. Following tests, he was later diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a type of heart muscle disease which causes the heart chambers to grow larger. He remained stable on medication until he reached the age of 12, when he began feeling lethargic and breathless.
He was placed on a heart transplant list and received a match in February 2018. Emma recalls the moment a donor was found in the middle of the night.
“The police banged on the door at 3am saying the hospital had a heart,” she continued. “They had been trying to ring us so they sent the police round. I let the police in and they gave us all the details, I was shaking; I was a mess.”
Tragically, just months after his operation, James then six-year-old sister Elizabeth began showing symptoms of the same condition. "Doctors kept telling me Elizabeth had a virus,” Emma continued. “In the summer of 2018, she suddenly fell very poorly. I knew something wasn’t right.”
Elizabeth, now aged nine, was given an artificial heart – a device that maintains blood circulation in the human body for a certain period of time – while she waited for a donor. In January 2019, when the tot was just six-years-old, doctors found a matching heart and the transplant went ahead. The operation was successful and the family were set for their happily-ever-after.
But in a tragic twist of fate, Malcolm died just four weeks after Elizabeth was discharged from hospital. Tests revealed while he didn’t have dilated cardiomyopathy, he unknowingly had heart disease.
“It turned our lives totally upside down,” Emma said. “Not just emotionally, but financially too. He really was my rock and an amazing father to the children.
“He had a sudden heart attack which was probably brought on by stress. He was going to work in between running up and down to the hospital in Newcastle.
“We were trying to split time between the children. While one parent was up there, one parent was down here trying to keep life as normal as possible for the one at home.
“Being a single mum and a widow all of a sudden at the age of 40 was quite a shock because I was on my own. I had these two children who were only 12 and six and I had to try and keep it together for them.
“I had a breakdown; I wasn’t looking after myself or leaving the house. I wasn’t going out anywhere and I slept a lot of the time, but at the forefront was my children. I always made sure they had clean clothes and food and their medication.
“I wasn’t bothered about myself. I was just making sure the children were okay. I just shut myself off for a few weeks. I had to go to the doctors about it because I didn’t feel like I wanted to be here anymore.
“Losing Malcolm was the catalyst for the stress and the breakdown from my children having their operations. I went to the doctors and they sorted medication out; I’m on antidepressants. They were amazing.
“Right now, I’m in a better place. The kids are in a better place and hopefully things will continue that way. Although they could still get poorly or need a new heart, that’s in the future and I just want to think about what’s happening right now.”
Emma is now fundraising in hopes of treating James and Elizabeth to a PlayStation 5 after everything they have been through. To donate, follow the link by clicking here .
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