Anniversary walk for girl who was not expected to live (From Dorset Echo)

Anniversary walk for girl who was not expected to live

1:00pm Saturday 21st November 2009 in

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MIRACLE baby Zoe Dickson is stepping out today to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of her life-saving heart operation.

When Zoe was just six hours old she was rushed to Southampton General Hospital after she turned blue and her oxygen levels dropped.

Her cardiac specialist later told her parents that he had thought it would be the last time he would see her.

At nine months old, Zoe underwent a major operation on her heart and her pulse shot up to 300 – more than triple the normal rate.

In August this year she had a pacemaker fitted.

Zoe, 22, of Dorchester, said the cardiac specialist now calls her his ‘miracle baby.’ Today at noon, Zoe will be celebrating an ‘amazing’ life with a sponsored walk along Weymouth Esplanade from Lodmoor, accompanied by her boyfriend Duncan Patterson and her mum Rose Pettit.

The walk, which aims to raise funds and awareness for Congenital Heart Defects UK, is also in honour of her friend Hazel Hunt, 38, of Spain who underwent a life saving operation 36 years ago this month.

Zoe, a nursing assistant at Dorset County Hospital, said: “I met Hazel a year ago through a Facebook group for the heart defect we have. We’ve been speaking ever since.

“The sponsored walk will be just along The Esplanade, it’s to celebrate the 36th anniversary of Hazel’s operation and the 22nd anniversary of mine. We find it quite amazing we’re still here because technically I wasn’t meant to survive a day let alone 22 years later.”

She added: “When I was first home at seven weeks old the doctor told my mum he never thought he’d see me again when he sent me to Southampton hospital.

“Then I had to go back in for an operation at nine months old and I came out on New Year’s Eve – I was supposed to come out on Christmas Eve but my pulse rate shot up to 300.

“They tried shock treatment and that didn’t work and then they put me on trial medication and it worked.”

Both Zoe and Hazel were born with transposition of the great arteries. It means the aorta and pulmonary artery are in the wrong place.

Zoe’s life-saving oper-ation was called the Sennings’ procedure and took place at Southampton General Hospital. Hazel underwent the Mustard procedure at Bristol hospital – two very similar operations.

Zoe said she has three sisters and a brother and none of them have the condition.

To sponsor Zoe visit http://congenital-heart-defects.co.uk