Kayden's Story

Keen to arrive in the world!

In August 2015 Lorna and Craig’s son, Kayden, made a surprise entrance to the world, arriving 8 weeks and 5 days prematurely! Understandably his parents were extremely worried about him. However all went really well during his first four weeks at Crosshouse Hospital. Kayden went home to be with his big brother Zachary.

A winter cold?

At around five months old Kayden became ill with a cold. To begin with Lorna wasn’t too concerned. However as Kayden became more lethargic and stopped taking his milk her concerns grew. On the Tuesday they visited the GP.

The doctor took one look at Kayden and rang an ambulance! His oxygen levels were very low.

Back to Crosshouse Hospital

Kayden and his mum and dad were blue lighted to hospital. After a series of tests and x-rays they discovered that Kayden had influenza, a collapsed lung and was Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) positive!

Lorna explained how “He got put on oxygen overnight but didn’t make any difference so on the Wednesday the nurses put him on the CPAP machine for an hour to see if that would help”. The machine provided a stream of oxygenated air to help improve Kayden’s oxygen levels.

An hour passed and there was no improvement. “The nurses then told us the best thing was to put him into an induced coma to allow his body to rest” Lorna told us.

Kayden was moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Crosshouse Hospital. Later on the ICU Mobile Team arrived from the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow. The family were told that they couldn’t travel with Kayden in the ambulance.

The Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow

It was past 9pm before Lorna and Craig travelled from Kilmarnock to Glasgow. The family could at last see Kayden in ICU. By 2.30am they needed to rest and so drove home. They awoke early the next morning to be back with their seriously ill son.

“At this point we didn’t really know much about the House” said Lorna. But before they travelled back, they received some very welcome news.

“We received a call from the hospital to let us know they had booked us a room at the House for as long as we needed it and at no cost… which was a relief as both myself and my husband were self employed and if we didn’t work we didn’t get paid. We travel straight up and signed in at the House where the staff were really lovely, and they showed us around” recalled Lorna.

“We had our room and we also had our own kitchen station with cooking utensils and fridge and freezer if we wanted to store things. It was great to come and go as we pleased. Our son Zachary was welcome to stay as well… What a relief it was knowing that we didn’t need to make that journey every day from Kilmarnock to Glasgow and back again” described Lorna.

Constant bedside vigil

“We were the parents that never left Kayden’s side day in day out… we stayed with him till the small hours of the morning so it was great knowing we only had a short walk to a bed where we could rest” explained Craig.

Kayden was woken from his induced coma three days later. After being moved to a ward for monitoring he was transferred back to Crosshouse Hospital on the Monday. “We got a call from the ward to the House saying Kayden’s transport had arrived to take him back to Crosshouse Hospital, so we then checked out”.

The House made a huge difference

Lorna and Craig agreed that Crossbasket House was like a home from home for them. “If we didn’t have the House myself and my husband would have been worthless with travelling to and from and even less sleep. To know we were just five minutes from Kayden, and we could pop into see him anytime made things a bit easier,” said Lorna.

Craig went on to say “At one point the nurses couldn’t tell us what the outcome would have been for Kayden as nothing at the time was helping him. But this wee soul fought and fought and he’s a fighter”.

Kayden went on to be discharged from Crosshouse Hospital on the Tuesday. Unfortunately, he needed to spend a lot of his early years in and out of hospital with RSV.

And now…

Kayden started primary school in August 2020 – “He is absolutely fantastic with no worries to his health now. He’s an absolute wee fighter now and he makes the most of his life” finished Lorna.

It’s wonderful to know that Kayden is doing so well. His parents love and affection at his bedside helped to give him the strength to pull through.