Dredging up painful memories is no fun but it makes us appreciate what we have – so here we go.
My mum called me in Dubai on a Saturday night to tell me that Corinne was in hospital with suspected pneumonia. Obviously, hospital is never a good place to be but I told mum about a friend of mine in Dubai who had recently recovered from pneumonia. From Gavin’s experience I thought it was a case of rest, antibiotics, recover, home! Nothing to get too worked up about!
How wrong can you be?
The following day I was in the car heading to collect my son Cooper from nursery at 12pm. Big bro called me in the car – “it’s not good, mate” was the message. Never heard Davy emotional (angry doesn’t count) so I immediately knew there was a problem. I can’t remember what he said about the illness, in fact I don’t remember anything else about that call other than me asking, “do I need to get on a plane”? Yes!
I called Emma and asked her to get home – she knew instantly and got straight in the car. I collected Cooper about 15 minutes later and by the time I arrived home I had booked myself, Emma, Cooper and Harrison on the 3pm flight out of Dubai to Glasgow. By this time Emma was packing bags.
Unfortunately Emma then remembered that everyone’s passports, except mine, were in Dubai immigration having their visas renewed! Brilliant – no way we could get them in time. Immediately called Emirates and changed their flights to the following day. My bag was packed, I was ready to go. The taxi’s waiting outside the door, I hate to wake you up to say goodbye…Don’t know where that came from but turns out to be quite apt! I tell myself that I never thought that Corinne was going to die but I packed a suit and a tie – and that scares the sh*t out of me, still.
At the airport I spoke to Davy, Kate and Emma but there was nothing I could say or do from Dubai that would help anyone. Being on the other side of the World during a family crisis ain’t pretty. There was nothing I could do and felt useless. While the rest of the family were there for each other I was sitting in an airport lounge worrying and afraid to get on the plane. The flight passed in a blur – so many things were going through my head and yet I thought of nothing! I was lucky that I did not hear the news that they were keeping Corinne alive until I got there.
Plane landed and I was first off. Ran through security and even my bag was one of the first out – someone recognised I needed help. On the phone to Davy who told me that they had a plan and that there was a crew from Leicester in with her as we speak and there was a chance. Scott Campbell was waiting for me at the airport and took me straight to the hospital in Paisley. Scott brought me up to speed and for the first time I was grateful for that 7 hour flight. I am pretty sure that I missed the worst of it in the air.
I got there to find everyone fidgeting in a piping hot waiting room.
Family, Mo & Fabio and Scott. Everyone seemed relatively relaxed, given the situation. Corinne, at this stage, was in theatre being connected to the ECMO unit and everyone seemed very positive about this.
It was about 30 minutes later that I saw Corinne. They wheeled her out of surgery with all the equipment on her chest. This was her prepped to get on her private plane so she had to carry the equipment herself! I wasn’t prepared for seeing her – I guess you never are the first time after a trauma, BUT SHE WAS ALIVE! The guys had been speaking to the ECMO team and filled me in on the process and it seems that her odds had gone from next to none to about 60%! 10 minutes later Davy, Scott and I were in a car heading to Leicester. On the way down Scott showed me some websites explaining the ECMO treatment while Davy snored on the back seat.
We stayed in Leicester for 2 or 3 days then drove back up the road to collect Emma and Cooper who had arrived into Glasgow. We had been spending as much time as we could at Corinne’s bedside and chatting to the staff, learning about the treatment, machines, stats etc. The staff were incredible and I don’t think there can be any doubt that the ECMO treatment saved Corinne’s life.
I drove Emma and Cooper back down the following day and we spent another couple of days there. One of us had to get back to Dubai pretty soon as we had left Harrison with friends. I spoke to the doctors about timeframes. I didn’t want to leave Leicester but Corinne was making great progress and the doctors suggested I should go home and then come back when there was a change. Made sense. We changed our flights and arranged to fly out of Manchester the following day.
Emma and I went to say goodbye to Corinne on Friday morning. By that stage there were signs that Corinne was coming round. She opened her eyes when asked although she wasn’t focusing. While Emma and I were with her she opened her eyes and smiled! I bent over to kiss her and she puckered her lips for a kiss! She knew it was me and she was saying bye-bye!
Unbelievable feeling – relief, happiness, sadness at leaving but mainly love! Emma immediately burst into tears. After all Corinne had been through, she was making progress and managed to kiss her little brother good-bye!
Finding Your Feet 
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