As proud new parents, Zoe Pickering and Craig Williams should have been at home with their beautiful twins – but instead they were holding a beside vigil in hospital.
Little Roman lay unresponsive on a life-support machine as his desperate mum and dad feared the worst.
Doctors discovered he had a life-threatening heart defect when Zoe was five months pregnant. Aged 10 months, and after 15 operations, Roman had a heart transplant.
It was his only hope, but had left him critical, with medics fearing he’d suffered irreparable brain damage.
In a final attempt to get their son’s brain to respond, Zoe and Craig began talking to him about his twin, Hunter.
And, in a remarkable example of the bond between the brothers, the second he heard Hunter’s name, the monitors sprang to life.
Now as they prepare to celebrate Christmas at home together, Zoe and Craig say it truly was their little miracle.
Zoe, 27, says: “It really was the most remarkable moment. We were sitting by Roman’s bedside and he wasn’t responding to anything.
“The doctors thought he had suffered some brain damage as a result of the transplant and were trying to measure brain activity. But there... was no activity. We were in despair. But then we mentioned Hunter’s name and suddenly the readings on the monitors shot up.
“It was amazing to see. Just hearing his brother’s name got the response the doctors had been waiting for. They were able to tell us then that he hadn’t suffered brain damage after all.”
Zoe and Craig, 34, from Fishburn, in County Durham, knew their adorable twins were close – but hadn’t realised quite how close.
Former beautician Zoe was having her 20-week scan when doctors first realised something was wrong with her identical twins.
Doctors had seen a blockage in Roman’s heart, which was affecting the blood flow to the lungs – a condition called pulmonary atresia and which can be fatal.
They told the devastated couple Roman could be “born blue”, or would probably need to be hooked up to oxygen to survive. Zoe recalls: “It was devastating to be told something was wrong with one of the twins. We were offered a termination, but if we had gone ahead with that, it would have put Hunter at risk, too.
“So we carried on with the pregnancy, just praying that Roman would be all right.” The twins were born four months later in January, 2015, at Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle. Roman was the bigger at 5lb 7oz, with Hunter at 5lb 2oz.
But it was also the beginning of a long road of treatment for Roman.
He was too ill to go home and was transferred to the Freeman Hospital, where doctors battled to save him.
For three months, they tried a series of procedures, hoping to avoid a transplant. But then the pair were told he would definitely need a new heart.
Zoe says: “We were so worried as he was so young, but we knew it was his only chance. He had already spent so much of his short life in hospital.”
Little Roman then began a seven-month wait until they could find a match. During that time, he had to stay in hospital and undergo 15 operations to keep him stable. Zoe says: “It was a long wait for a heart – and it’s very hard. We became friends with everyone in the hospital – all these children waiting for a transplant. And we knew we just had to keep waiting.
“They could keep him stable, but he was too ill to come home until after he’d had the transplant. So it was just a case of waiting. We saw nine people gets hearts before us. But we also saw others who didn’t get the organ they needed in time. That was awful.”
Eventually a heart became available and Roman underwent 14 hours of surgery. It was soon afterwards that doctors realised there was no brain activity – not until brave Roman heard his brother’s name and the monitors “suddenly sprang into life”. Following the “miracle moment”, the couple were finally able to bring their second twin home in March last year – four months after the op and 14 months after he was born.
A kidney failure means Roman is now on dialysis, but at last, the two-year-old can enjoy a proper Christmas with his family for the first time. “This is the first time he is really looking forward to meeting Santa Claus,” Zoe says. “As his health has improved, so has his confidence and now he keeps saying how much he is looking forward to meeting him and sitting on Santa’s knee.”
Of course, Zoe knows the greatest gift he’ll ever be given was his new heart. Her and Craig supported the Mirror’s long-running campaign to change the current donor system from opt-in to opt-out.
The proposal is currently going through parliament, with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt officially launching a consultation this week. “We completely back the campaign,” says Zoe.
“It’s really important.”