Ellie is home

Now 21 year old dad Danny Austin wants to run the Hastings half-marathon to raise awareness and funds to help those who helped his little girl survive.

Ellie Rose, two and a half months old, was born on November 21 with bowels and intestines outside her body and rushed into surgery three hours later.

Her young life has been full of ordeal but on Tuesday she was with Danny and mum Tammy Higgs at home in Wilton Road and the hope was she would be able to stay.

The couple were aware from the 12 week scan that Ellie would be born with the condition but even so Danny said reality hit them hard.

He told the Observer: “You can be as mentally prepared as you like but it is still a shock.

“It was really bad. It was the best experience of my life and the worst experience of my life.

“Tammy was really upset. She gave birth at 12.15am and couldn’t even hold her own daughter. They took her straight away and there were ten people working around her in the incubator. We didn’t see her for that first hour- she was taken to the baby care unit to stabilise her.

“Then at 3am she was in for her operation. We had to sign the consent form and that was horrible.”

Danny and Tammy, who is 18, were not able to hold Ellie until she was six days old and covered in wires and tubes.

She was not able to cope with feeding so was given just 1ml of milk per hour which was all her system could cope with, even though Danny and Tammy had to listen to her cries because she was so hungry.

“No-one should have to go through that,” said Danny this week.

“That’s why I wanted to put my story out through the Observer and make sure people are more aware.”

Ellie went into surgery on Monday to remove the line which was inserted to regulate her blood sugar levels, and Tammy has learned how to aspirate her daughter every couple of hours and check the syringe to make sure milk is being digested.

This week Danny said he was “glad” his baby was coming home and looking forward to being kept up at night.

“I just want to give something back,” he said.

“If we can get over this I think we can get through anything. It’s been unbelieveable.”

He ran the half-marathon before when a friend’s baby was born prematurely but this time it means even more because the inspiration is so close to him and Tammy.

If you want to sponsor Danny call him on 07703 566509 or email on [email protected].