“Miracle” triplets who spent three months fighting for life in intensive care after their premature birth have been reunited with the London doctors who saved them… 17 years later.
Isabel, Emily and Ben Collier were born after just 29 weeks’ gestation at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on January 8, 2006. All three of them weighed less than three pounds each — well under half the average of a newborn baby. Now they are all healthy 17-year-olds preparing to take their AS-level exams.
As newborns, they were taken to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, where they were treated by consultant Dr Gary Hartnoll, surgeon Dr Charlotte Deans and nurse Bryony Skipworth. They were given steroids to open up their lungs and help them to breathe.
Their father Andy Collier told the Standard the experience of watching his children fight for life was “terrifying”.
“The fear was extraordinary. We had never seen a premature baby or an intensive care unit until that morning. It was pretty frightening and we didn’t know what the next step was. In some ways, the naivety was good. We didn’t know what the next week would look like.”
Earlier this year the family visited the hospital to be reunited, below, with the medical team who kept their children alive. Recalling the experience of going back, their mother Anna Collier said: “Hearing the monitors and beeps going off immediately threw me back to those dark days when they were being resuscitated.
“It was emotional. If it wasn’t for Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, our babies would not be alive today. The care we received from the doctors and nurses on the care unit was fantastic. They work long hours in a highly pressurised environment but they were brilliant.”
Isabel said: “It’s amazing to think that we survived. Who would think three babies who were there for those months would still be alive? It was so nice to see the doctors and nurses and to thank them for taking care of us.”
The Chelsea and Westminster unit provides specialist care for premature babies or those who have other problems after birth. More than 500 sick or injured babies are treated in it every year.
The family, who now live in Oxfordshire, set up the charity Three Little Miracles in 2007 and have raised nearly £400,000 to buy equipment — including ventilators and incubators — for the Chelsea and Westminster, as well as other hospitals. Mr Collier said: “We originally planned to buy one incubator, which costs around £25,000, but then that became three.”
