A young couple have shared the traumatic experience of nearly losing their newborn son after he was delivered without a heartbeat and doctors fought to save him.
Demi Duffin and Charlie Hayes faced a medical emergency after their baby, Luca, developed serious complications linked to a condition identified during pregnancy.
When Demi was around three months pregnant, she and Charlie were informed that Luca had gastroschisis, a rare birth defect in which the baby’s abdominal wall does not close properly and some organs develop outside the body.
For Luca, the issue affected his bowels. Gastroschisis usually requires close monitoring throughout pregnancy and urgent surgery after birth, with babies often needing specialist neonatal care and, in some cases, more than one operation.
Although doctors initially told the couple that the problem was not considered severe, things became more concerning when Demi reached 30 weeks and noticed she could no longer feel him moving.
The 17-year-old went to hospital for checks, but was discharged shortly afterwards.
“They said his bowels were fine and nothing was wrong with him,” Demi explained. “We were told I would be monitored every few weeks at Medway.”
Not long after, the same issue happened again, prompting Demi to return to hospital for further assessment.
According to the family’s fundraiser, on 26 May Demi again noticed Luca had stopped moving and was told to go to Medway Hospital to be checked. Within an hour of arriving, medics discovered that his condition had deteriorated and an emergency C-section was carried out immediately.
Born seven weeks early, Luca weighed just 3lb 5oz. He arrived with no heartbeat and had to undergo urgent resuscitation to save his life.
Charlie, 19, said: “Seeing him born dead was so hard. It took the doctors around an hour to work on him. It’s the longest hour I’ve ever been through. But thank God the hospital brought him back to life.”
The couple were later told that if Demi had arrived at hospital only a few hours later, Luca would not have survived.
After being stabilised, Luca was transferred to The Royal London Hospital, where surgeons began another procedure to place his bowels back inside his body.
Since then, he has undergone two more operations and has remained under close observation, with doctors using a ventilator to support his breathing.
Although he was taken off the ventilator last week, Luca is still in hospital and continues to be carefully monitored.
Charlie said: “Me and Demi got to hold him the other day and got to do skin-to-skin contact for the first time. That was amazing. Demi said how light he was, but when I held him, I thought he was the heaviest thing I’ve ever held. It was quite literally like holding my world in my hands. I’ll never forget that moment.
“But the doctors have told us not to keep our hopes up, as at any time his condition could worsen. All we can do is keep praying. We don’t know when he will be able to come home. But doctors said it will be a long time.”
A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family as they continue to spend time at Luca’s bedside during his recovery.