From the moment we met and gave each other a hug it felt so comfortable,’ says Tracey Pescod, describing meeting Judy Coutinho for the first time a couple of weeks ago.
Both have been through the almost intolerable pain of losing a child, but their link goes deeper than that. For the sudden death of Judy’s son Alex helped save the life of Tracey’s daughter Chloe. At the time, Chloe was just 20 and was critically ill in hospital, her organs shutting down because of heart failure.
But then, in February last year, almost three years after the transplant, tragedy struck again: Chloe’s body started to reject her donated heart, and she died, aged 22. Tracey, 47, a former restaurant manager from Sunderland, was beside herself with grief. But she knew that Judy, who had by chance messaged her for the first time a week earlier, via social media, would understand how she was feeling.
‘It was one of the most special things I’ve ever been given,’ says Judy, who is a paediatric nurse and lives in Lancashire with partner Gary Cunningham, 62, a retired fireman. She has three other sons, Olly, 30, Rick, 27, and Stephen, 24. Alex’s death in January 2020 was a terrible ‘bolt from the blue’. He’d come home for Christmas from Chicago, where he worked as a financial auditor.
Judy rang 999 while Gary performed CPR on Alex. ‘We couldn’t comprehend what had happened. He was fit and healthy.’ Chloe was born with a rare condition, Sengers syndrome, which affects the mitochondria, the ‘batteries’ in every cell. As a result, she had cardiomyopathy , spina bifida and cataracts. Over the next fortnight, three hearts became available but each was eventually judged to be unsuitable — the third only after Chloe had been sedated and prepared to be taken to theatre.
Then, one morning, Chloe said she felt as if she had something in the back of her mouth. ‘I had a look and it looked like a decaying mushroom,’ says Tracey. ‘But she made a good recovery, she was fit and active and even managed to get a voluntary job at the local garden centre. It seemed like life had turned a corner for her,’ says Tracey.
But by the time they realised what was wrong, Chloe was in a coma. ‘They said there was nothing more they could do, and we had to be prepared for her to die.’ Tracey barely registered anything else from that difficult time. But one thing made an impression: a message she received from a local cancer fundraiser called David Ansell who had been inspired in part by Chloe’s story to do charity walks.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: SkyNews - 🏆 35. / 67 Read more »
Source: BBCLondonNews - 🏆 115. / 51 Read more »
Source: BBCLondonNews - 🏆 115. / 51 Read more »
Source: DailyMailCeleb - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »
Source: DailyMailCeleb - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »
Source: DailyMailCeleb - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »