BiographyArchie was one of a twin pregnancy and was born very prematurely at 28 weeks and 1 day. At birth he weighed 2lb 2oz and we were warned he had a long fight ahead of him. Miraculously his NICU journey progressed with just minor bumps in the road and he finally came home 7 weeks late at 35 weeks gestational age.
However just 11 days later Archie’s real battle began. On the 21st November 2016, Archie went into cardiac and respiratory arrest. He’d caught bronchiolitis but his little lungs just weren’t strong enough to fight it. For the next 5 weeks he had to learn to breath by himself again. From being on oscillation, to CPAP all the way down to him eventually breathing on his own.
Once he was home it was quite clear he was failing to develop at the same rate as his twin, so after numerous doctors' appointments culminating with an MRI, he was diagnosed with left hemiplegic cerebral palsy.
As the years went on and the appointments continued, we came to learn that the damage to his brain had also left him with left hemianopia, causing him to be blind in the left side of both of his eyes, he has epilepsy, functional hearing loss, sensory processing disorder and severe learning delays.
At the age of 2 he also had to cope with the devastating loss of his Dad. Even though he was unable to understand the situation or process what was happening, it was clear he knew something was going on as his behaviours changed drastically, he would rub his head so severely he lost an entire patch on the side, and when walking past the room his dad spent his final days in he would fall completely silent.
Despite all he has been through he has never let his condition hold him back. He attends a specialist school which is helping him to progress in ways we never thought possible and he does it all with an infectious smile on his face.
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