9:30am Thursday 24th December 2009
By Neil Docking
A TENACIOUS tot is celebrating her first Christmas at home after proving the doctors wrong.
There was a time when Danielle Kennedy wasn't sure if her daughter Madison would live to see her first birthday.
Because of heart and lung problems Madison Kennedy-Finglaf spent the first two years of her life at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital on a life-support machine.
But now, a month before she turns three, Madison is ready to open her presents at her home in Catlow Hall Street, Oswaldtwistle, surrounded by her mum, big brother Dylan, eight, little sister Macey, one, and dad Lee, 27.
Danielle, 27, said: “This will be Madison's first proper Christmas at home.
“She was in hospital from birth up until May this year. That was her home. She probably wondered where she was going when she came here.
“It was hard but she kept going. She's done a lot better than we expected and we're made up because we never thought this would happen.
“She loves everything Peppa Pig so she's hoping for a Peppa Pig pram and a dressing table for Christmas. Along with everything else from the Argos catalogue!”
Doctors discovered Madison's heart was in the wrong position when she was born.
She also suffers from a defect called Scimitar Syndrome, linked to a small right lung, and has Bronchomalacia, where the cartilage in the walls of the bronchial tubes are weak, leading to severe breathing difficulties.
However, thanks to a mobile ventilation unit and 24-hour trained care supervision provided by WellChild, the national charity for sick children, she is now able to live at home.
Danielle said: “She needs the ventilator machine to breathe for her.
“It's something she will have to live with for the rest of her life, but she is getting more stable.
“They don't think she will ever come off the ventilator, but then they didn't think she would be here now, so you never know.
“She is very determined to keep proving people wrong.”
Because of Madison's condition somebody has to be awake with her all night, a duty Danielle fulfils when support is not available.
She sleeps in a specially adapted cot that monitors her heart rate and oxygen levels and Nicola Moon, a health care assistant from NHS East Lancashire, visits her four times a week.
Madison started to walk a month ago and she is due to start nursery in the New Year.
Danielle said the support of her and Lee's family has been vital in helping their daughter reach this stage.
But she believes the real driving force has been Madison herself.
She said: “She pulled through with a smile on her face.
“She is genuinely a very happy little girl, and if she can be happy after all she has been through, then we have to be happy too.
“We just think we're fortunate that she is still here. There was a time we thought she wouldn't make her first Christmas.
“Just to have her home, it's wonderful. I am just really, really proud.”
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