Young Daisy Pritchard was almost two years old when she underwent open heart surgery and then suffered a stroke. Her mother, Eileen Pritchard, says doctors assured her that life support machines had to be switched off because the girl would never be able to walk or talk. However, the woman continued to struggle.
“I fought all alone so that my daughter could live. There were times when I thought I would sit at her bedside for the rest of my life, wishing she would wake up,” says Daisy’s mother to the world.
The mother, who fought to keep her child alive despite doctors saying she would never walk or talk, is pleased with the activities of her 10-year-old daughter, who loves to ride horses and swim.
“It took me years to be able to talk about what happened, but I consider myself very lucky that when I started fighting for Daisy’s life I was listened to.”
But the woman was willing to do anything to keep her daughter alive.
“You have no idea how you would react if someone asked you for permission to turn off your child’s life support until you were in that situation yourself!” – says the woman, who persuaded doctors to gradually reduce the dose of sedatives that kept Daisy in a coma so that she could breathe on her own.
As luck would have it, the mother’s plan was 100 % successful. Daisy woke up 72 hours after she had stopped being sedated. Although Daisy suffered from temporary amnesia and did not recognise her mother, as well as suffered from temporary paralysis, her health began to recover.
Daisy now goes to school and plays sports. Daisy is still on treatment as she suffers from epilepsy and her right arm has never recovered, she lives a busy life as an active 10-year-old girl.
