For a surgeon who says he sees hundreds of patients, this was one reunion he had not forgotten.
Nearly three years after operating on Fleur as a 28-day-old baby weighing 1.8 kilograms, heart surgeon Ikenna Omeje met her again and called her “certainly special”.
Fleur, from Nottinghamshire, was born six weeks early with her twin sister, Ottilie, at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham. The girls spent several weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit before they were well enough to go home.
But Fleur later began struggling with feeding and breathing and was taken back to Queen’s Medical Centre, where she spent five days in paediatric intensive care.
A CT scan confirmed she had Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage, or TAPVD, a congenital heart condition in which all four pulmonary veins drain into the right atrium instead of the left, forcing blood to recirculate to the lungs.
Her family were initially told she was too young for surgery, news they said sent “our world crashing down”.
Fleur was then taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary, where a specialist team led by Mr Omeje said they would operate, although her family was told she had only a 20 percent chance of survival.
She underwent a nine-hour operation at just 28 days old.
Mr Omeje said Fleur “made history in Leicester as the smallest child to have open-heart surgery at 1.8kg”, and said he believed she was also the youngest in the UK because she was premature.
“I see hundreds of patients, but you really remember the special ones, and Fleur was certainly special,” he said to the BBC.
“She made history in Leicester as the smallest child to have open-heart surgery at 1.8kg, but I believe she’s also the youngest in the UK because she was premature.
“I remember we had to adapt the oxygenator because of her size.
“We knew Fleur’s surgery was risky, but we believe in pushing the boundaries, and I believed we had the ability to do it.
“The trust shown in us by her parents gives us motivation to do our utmost, and it is amazing and an honour to see her again. It has made my day.”
Her surgery required Fleur to be placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, machine, a temporary life support system which pumps blood out of the body, reoxygenates it and returns it.
Her chest was closed after a week, and six weeks later the family of four were able to go home.
Both girls later had more breathing problems and, by their first Christmas, Fleur had spent 50 days in hospital. The twins have since made a full recovery.
When Fleur and Ottilie met Mr Omeje again on 31 March, their mother, Finley, thanked him for the operation that saved Fleur’s life.
“You gave Fleur a life, and Ottilie has a sister because of you. We can never thank you enough,” she said.
“The dedication of the teams who cared for the twins, and Heart Link charity, which provided support for us while Fleur was in hospital, including a place to stay, were brilliant.”
Mr Omeje said seeing Fleur again was emotional.
“It was amazing, the moment I saw her, I picked her up and it felt really, really satisfying,” he said.
“It was also emotional. I’m not usually the emotional type… but there it almost drew me to tears. It was really lovely to see her, and also her little sister, and it just shows the effort we all put in here is not in vain.”
