Mason Bushell

My sweet boy Mason was born too early in this world, at 24 weeks gestation i was brought into hospital with severe pre-eclampsia, and put onto high doses of medication to lower my blood pressure.
At the same time i was told the baby could be delivered at any time, so was kept on the maternity ward at Northwick Park hospital for a week and a half.
On friday 13th June i was transferred to St. Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London as the baby unit there was much more advanced for when the baby came. I was brought to their maternity ward for close supervision and given two doses of medication to develop the baby's lungs for birth.
On Monday 16th June i was taken to have a scan on the baby and was told that my placenta was slowly rupturing and the baby would have to be born the following morning.
On 17th June 2008, baby Mason was born by emergency c-section at 9.45am. As Mason was delivered i could hear him trying to let out a cry. He was immediately placed on a ventilator, shown to me, and then brought to ITU.
I didn't get to see Mason until a day after he was born, but i remember the first time i looked at him. I couldn't stop crying at the sight of my little baby with wires and tubes all around him.
In Mason's first few days of life, he suffered from a brain hemoragghe, and bleeding on his lungs, causing serious damage. Doctors didn't know whether Mason would be disabled from the bleeding on his brain and whether he would ever be able to breath unaided.
Over the next few weeks Mason showed positive progress and was slowly being weened off the ventilator and onto CPAP.
But after a few careful examinations, doctors told us that there was a large obstruction in Mason's bowel and that he would need to have surgery. They did not know what the obstruction was and whether the bowel could be saved. Prepared for the worst, we waited 2 hours while Mason had his surgery. When the doctors came out they had smiles on their faces, and told us that the obstruction was curdled milk and that only a little part of the bowel had to be cut away with it.
After surgery, Mason had a stoma bag, which meant that he did his number 2's in a bag for the doctors to monitor the bowel movements and stop further obstructions.
Things started to look up for Mason after the surgery, but he was still very sensitive to noise and light and couldn't deal with handling, which meant that mummy and daddy didn't get many chances for cuddles.
We gave Mason his first bed bath at 18 weeks old, and he loved it. He loved to be massaged with oil too, and like every baby he loved his food.
At 18 weeks old Mason had a tracheostomy, which is when the doctors had to make a small hole in his neck for the breathing tube to go down. Mason had alot of difficulty dealing with this second operation, and was slowly deteriorating, he had little sleep and would throw up his feeds. I tried to give him more and more bed baths as it seemed to calm him down.
A week before Mason died he went into cardiac arrest, which meant that doctors had to pump on his chest to restart his heart. Me and Mason's daddy Matt decided that if this was to happen again, the doctors wouldn't do this and just let him go. We decided it would be extremely selfish of us to force Mason to stay alive for our sakes as he was already suffering.
On 7th November 08 it was Mason's daddy's birthday, so i decided to leave the hospital earlier than usual to let my hair down and go for a meal to celebrate.
Me and my partner Matt were leaving the restaurant when i got a phone call from the hospital, i was told i needed to go to the hospital as soon as i could as Mason's condition was getting worse.
I knew deep in my heart that today was the day Mason was going to leave us, i got another phone call from the hospital when i was half-way there telling me to try to hurry.
Me and Matt got to the hospital, but Mason was already gone. We arrived 40mins after he died at 10.20pm on his daddy's birthday.
He died of cardiac arrest.
Mason made us proud every day just for having the will to live, and the strength to fight. We were so lucky to have five wonderful months with him, we got to know our little angel before he gave up his fight.
We are devestated that he had to leave us, but he gave us beautiful memories that will last a lifetime xxx