Ty Easton Mitchison

Ty Easton Mitchison born on the 26th of March 07 and passed away on the 31st of March 07 aged 5 days old. Ty died because he was born without an enzyme with he needed to survive. We had him home and he was the most precious little man anyone could of imagined. We didnt have long with Ty but the love was unreal. We miss him deeply.

On the 16th of March I went into hospital as I thought my waters had broken. They checked me over and checked my baby and told me he was too small and wasn’t going to grow anymore. They said it would be to much of a risk to keep him inside of me until my due date which was the 4th of April. So they told me they were going to start me off on the 23rd of March but until then I had to keep coming into hospital to see if my baby was ok. The day finally came the 23rd of March I was so excited we got the baby’s thing all out ready put the Moses basket out finished the nursery etc. I went into hospital at 5:00 they gave me a tablet to start me off at about half 6 and told me that I was already 1cm dilated. I was able to walk around and sleep ok I had no pains. The next day came still nothing happened so 7:30 they gave me another tablet and checked me over and I was still 1cm. I woke up on Sunday morning with still no pains or nothing. So they told me they would try and break my waters if they were unable to they would give me another tablet. My baby just didn’t want to come out. In the end they broke my waters at 10:00 Sunday morning I was then taken into the delivery suite my partner Midge was there with me. They put me on a drip to speed my contractions up and gave me 2 paracetamols just in case I started to get any pains but nothing happened. It then came to about 5:00 and they gave me pethadine to help ease some pain and then I felt ok. Then later on I decided to have and epidural cause the pains were getting a bit worse. Finally after a long weekend I had a baby boy we didn’t find out what we were having so it would be a surprise and we were both over the moon. We decided to name him Ty he was born at 00:47 Monday morning he weighed 5lb 15oz. He was absolutely gorgeous. Midge held him and gave him his first bottle while I was getting cleaned up and had a bath. Midge then went home and I went to the ward to get some rest. On the Tuesday afternoon I was told I was able to go home both me and Ty were fine. On the way home we had to go shopping for him some new clothes as everything we had was far too big he was long but skinny bless him. Then next morning the midwife came and told me he had jaundice and said if it wasn’t better by Thursday I had to take him back to hospital. So Wednesday was a normal day to me so me and my mam took him out and I was so proud. Finally I had the baby I had always wanted previously I had 4 miscarriages and we both longed for this baby. Thursday then came and my midwife came and told me to go to hospital in the afternoon so me and my mam and my sister went shopping first and bought him loads of new clothes etc.. Then went into hospital and he was put under a heat lamp and I was told he would have to stay in. So I went home to meet Midge and go some cloths for me and Ty . Then went straight back to see our baby when we got there they took us to the maternity ward and gave us a room. Midge then went home later and me and Ty went to bed as normal. When I woke the nurse from special care came along and told me that they wanted to take Ty back to special care as they thought he was getting a cold so they checked him over and did x-rays, tests etc.. and couldn’t find anything wrong so they called for a doctor and he said it was a bug. So they put him on drip and gave him some medication and changed his bum before they put him into an incubator. Midge had to go to Leeds so I stayed with Ty. It then came to tea time and then they went to change his bum but he hadn’t wet his nappy all day and he had been on a drip all day so they thought it was something else. So they called a doctor again and they came with paramedics. They said they thought it could be meningitis by this time my mam had came through to sit with me and I was passed myself from that time onwards I just couldn’t stop crying. They had to transport him then to the RVI in Newcastle, They had to take Ty by ambulance and because there was no room for me my mam had to take me. We all left the hospital at the same time 7:00 me and my mam had to nip into Ashington to pick Caitlin and Callum up (my niece and nephew who we look after) and go to the petrol station. My mam dropped me off at the RVI as she had the kids to take home to bed and Midge was on his way. I went up to see Ty and he wasn’t there yet so they gave me a flat on the ward where we would stay until Ty was well enough to go home. It then came to 9:30 and he still wasn’t there I was past myself that something had happened so I asked the nurses to find out what was happening and they said they would find out. While they done that I phoned midge, he then phoned Wansbeck and they said Ty had left but then they had go back to the hospital as something had happened in the ambulandce. It then came to 10:15 and the nurse came to get me and told me that I could see Ty. When I went in I couldn’t believe my eye’s he was wired up to loads of machines etc.. He looked so bad my beautiful baby boy. They told me that Ty stopped breathing and then started to have trouble breathing so they put him on a life support machine. I was heart broken. Midge then turned up and he was also heart broken we just didn’t know what was happening to our little baby. They told us to go and get something to eat while they done a lumbar puncture to find out if it was meningitis. We then went back to our flat on the ward to try and get some sleep at about 12:30 they came to wake us at about 1:30 on Saturday morning and told us it wasn’t meningitis which was great news but in another way it wasn’t because they didn’t know what it was. So they went away and done more tests and we tried to get some sleep but it was so hard as we just didn’t know what was happening. They then woke us at 4:00 and told us that they have found out what it is. He was born without an enzyme in his body and when he drinks his milk the protein in the milk go into your body and splits up and goes into different parts of your body and what’s left is called inmonia which is a poison and the enzyme which Ty was born without gets rid of it everyone has no more than 50 parts of this inmonia and Ty had already had 3,000. So they got some drugs sent to hospital to try and help him. But they weren’t working and we were devastated we went straight to see him. They then put him on a dialysis machine which takes the blood out of his body filters it and cleans it then it puts it back in to try and get the inmonia count down. While they done this me and midge went home to get some clean cloths and to tell our family’s what was happening. We then went back through to hospital and went straight to see Ty the doctor who was looking after Ty was called Dr Janet Berrington and she was lovely and the nurses couldn’t do enough for us and Ty when we were crying they would comfort and us and when we would joke on they would with us. It was the only way we could be strong enough for Ty. Dr Berrington then spoke to us and told us that the dialysis machine just wasn’t working and the effect of what Ty had was brain damage so she said she would get another machine to check the brain damage levels. Me and Midge sat waiting watching this machine and there was about 7 lines which should have all been active and they were all flat from that point on we knew what was going to happen. My mam and Midges dad then came to sit with us. They were both really supportive we then went to see Dr Berrington again to get the brain damage results but we knew what she was going to say. She told us that there was a very, very, very slim chance that Ty would survive but he would be completely brain damaged she told it then that it was our decision on what to do from this point on. Me and Midge sat and thought about it for ages and then finally decided to let him go as it was for the best and if he did survive he just wouldn’t have a life and we didn’t want that for our baby. So we told Dr Berrington and she said whenever we were ready just to tell her so first we let all of our family’s know what our decision was everyone was devastated, Midges son Jason hadn’t even met his baby brother so we got his mam to bring him through to see Ty. We also decided to get Ty baptised we decided that it was just going to be me and Midge there as it wasn’t fair on the rest of our family that they couldn’t be there. We were able to hold Ty while it was done but it was very difficult as we couldn’t stop crying and he was hooked up to lots of machines. Later that day we then decided we wanted to get him bathed and dressed before we turned the machines off. So Midge bathed him we kept saying he was going out for a night on the town. It was so hard I then got him dressed and our family’s said there final goodbye’s to Ty. It then came to 7:45 and we told them to take the machines off they also let us hold him and take him back to our room alone so we did at this point he was still breathing the whole time I kept praying for a miracle. Midge carried him to our room then I held him and I thought he had gone so I went to get a nurse to come and check him but he was still alive so I held him again and they checked him a few minutes later and it was at about 8:15 Ty passed away it was the worst day of our lives we didn’t know what to do or say our little baby boy only five days old and he was gone.

We held Ty’s funeral was on the 11th of April 2007 1 day before my 21st birthday. The song we chose for on the way into the church was How Do I Live without you by Trisha Yearwood and on the way out was A don't want to miss a thing by Aerosmith. It was lovely loads of people turned up not everyone could fit in the church he had loads of flowers for Ty only being 5 days old he made such an impact on so many peoples lives.

We have now found out what it was called what Ty actually had it was OTC Deficiency. Women are carriers and boys get it. If I have a girl she will be ok but she maybe a carrier also but if i have a boy its 50/50 chance of happening again. Me and my younger sister Susan are carriers and she is pregnant at the moment she is due on the 20th of November she has found out she is having a baby boy and her baby also has this rare condition. She is going to London to Kings cross hospital to get started of. They will know what he has got so we will have to wait and see what happens with her.