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Title: Amazing Grace: Parents cradle baby for last time after life support is switched off... but then she came back to life
Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... pport-switched--came-life.html
Published: Jun 19, 2009
Author: ?
Post Date: 2009-06-19 20:36:26 by freepatriot32
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Keywords: Parents, cradle baby, life support, switched off
Views: 151
Comments: 8
They are holding her as tightly as they can because they know it will be for the very last time. After deciding to tu rn their six-week-old daughter's life-support system off, Pete Vincent and Emily Ashurst cradled her in their arms and waited for her to slip quietly away. But Grace had other ideas. The little girl given only a 1 per cent chance of survival after contracting meningitis suddenly started to breathe on her own. To her parents' amazement and delight, she has surely and steadily continued her extraordinary recovery. Yesterday, she was well enough to leave hospital and go home. Grace's father, a 26-year-old Royal Marine and member of 45 Commando who returned from Afghanistan in April, knows all about fighting spirit. And it seems his daughter does too. 'It was all doom and gloom and no one thought Grace had a chance,' he said. 'They just didn't want to get our hopes up but we are overjoyed with what happened. 'The fact she's recovered is incredible - she's obviously a real fighter. She's defied all the odds and proved everybody wrong.' Grace was taken to Newcastle General Hospital on May 16 after her parents noticed she was listless and struggling to breathe. Tests showed she had late onset group B streptococcus meningitis, a condition which affects one in 1,000 babies and is contracted from the mother during childbirth. After four days in intensive care, doctors told her devastated parents there was virtually no hope for Grace. 'The decision to turn off her life support machine was based on what the doctors were telling us,' Mr Vincent said. 'The scan results were very bad so we thought it would be best for her. 'We were told she would take a few last breaths. 'But she kept stopping breathing and starting again for the next six hours. Six months in Afghanistan was easy compared to that.' Soon it was apparent that Grace had absolutely no intention of giving up. In the weeks since that rollercoaster day on May 20, her heart rate, temperature and blood pressure have all returned to normal. She has however, lost her sight although doctors are not yet sure whether this is permanent. Grace's mother Emily, 26, works as a ward clerk at the hospital but now has a very clear patient's perspective as well. She said the family, including Grace's big sister Megan, six, are 'looking forward to the future'. 'We are over the moon,' she said at the family home in Holystone, Newcastle. 'We were told Grace had catastrophic brain damage and had no chance of living. 'But she managed it and we are really happy and looking forward to enjoying our future as a family. Every day she is making slow progress. She cried on Thursday for the first time in four weeks and to me that was the nicest sound in the world - it was amazing to hear her do that. 'None of the doctors know what the future will hold for Grace and we are still worried for her, but also hoping things will improve.' Late onset meningitis, known as GBS, is present in a quarter of women of childbearing age and is passed on to one in every 1,000 babies during labour. It is fatal for one in eight of those affected.
Emily Ashurst holds her daughter Grace Vincent in her arms waiting for her to pass away 
The last picture: After the life support machine was switched off, Grace was expected to quietly die but survived against all odds 
Goodbye my darling: Pete Vincent cradles his little girl 
The day she was born: Grace with big sister Megan 
As a newborn baby with her proud father Pete on the day he came home from Afghanistan, and grandmother Leigh Brice 
Pete Vincent and partner Emily Ashurst with their miracle daughter Grace
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#1. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
There's a story that takes your mind off the gloom and doom. Bless these people and this child.
Join 2x4 Tuesdays & protect your RKBA. Thanks for this one - best wishes to all, over there. Grace = a gift from God
Bless these people and this child. Amen!
what a pretty baby she is. i so hope her blindness isn't permanent and that she makes a full recovery.
The smooth criminal transition from Bush/Cheney to Obama
Wow. Amazing story.
The holy shall kill thy therapist, for it IS a sin.
Heartbreaking. And the system is set up so as not to waste money trying to save those "statistical anomalies" who embarrass the doctors by surviving....
May God's Grace shine always on little Grace, May he always keep her in his protection and may he allow for her to be a Blessing, to all that come into her life.
Interesting case which shows that modern medicine's high-tech Rube Goldberg routines are not always the best medicine.
www.righttokeepandbeararms.com
#2. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
#3. To: randge, freepatriot32 (#1)
There's a story that takes your mind off the gloom and doom.
"The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty - that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men."
--George Washington, General Orders, August 23, 1776
#4. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
#5. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
#6. To: christine (#4)
what a pretty baby she is. i so hope her blindness isn't permanent and that she makes a full recovery.
#7. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
#8. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
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