Robert Christopher Sampson

YOU WAS THE LIGHT IN OUR LIFE'S NOW YOUR LIGHT IS IN THE SKY XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Robert christopher sampson was born on the 29th of june 2006 , by emergancy c section at 10:46pm and weighed 1.42kg, he was 11 weeks and 1 day early and hadn't been due until 15th september.
He was doing ok to start with and his problems began in the early hours of saturday morning, when his lung collapsed and instead of cpap which he had been on already, he had to be ventilated and that is where it all started to go wrong ,for starters they struggled to reinflate his lung and was on high pressures and 94% oxygen, and his chances didnt look that good , infact the doctors told us he could go at any time, but they didnt know how strong his will to live was, and despite everything happening to him which by the monday included a grade 4 ivh, (the worst grade a brain bleed can be) and also bleeding into his lungs he clung desperatly to stay with us he sure amazed the doctors who called him a true miricle as they had never seen a baby survive against those odds before (less then 5%).
As if that wasnt bad enough he went on to develop septicimia, as well as hydrocephulus,(water on the brain).
On many occasions we was told by the doctors that his brain was very badly damaged and he would be very very disabled even if he managed to survive, which they was doubtful that he would, they told us that all we was doing was prolonging the inevitable and it would be kinder to turn of his life support and let him slip away, well im sorry if he had already got through so much and was still hanging in then it wasnt for me to take that away from him. The way i looked at it was when he could take no more and had had enough then no matter what machines he was on, he would let well by the time bobby was six weeks and still with us, (although most days he needed to be bagged at least 5 or 6 times a day,) this was down to the growing pressure on his brain which by this point had gone from 27cms at birth to a massive 39cms, and this was despite having his head tapped daily to stop it growing further.
Doctors had to face facts bobby wanted to live, and at this point they finally started to pursue great ormond street fitting a shunt.
I was told the reason it was left so long was because he had had such a massive bleed that a shunt would have blocked if it had been done sooner, but i believe that they didnt expect him to still be around by this point, and he wouldnt have been if id let them have their way,anyway on the 14th august bobby had his first shunt fitted, and there was a noticable differance straight away not just the size of his head but his heartrate bp sats all looked a lot better.
For the first time since his problems began he didnt need regular bagging, he was still ventilated, but doing so much better, our brave little soldier sure showed them doubters, anyway to cut a long story short (as id be here for the next fortnight writing this) .
Because he was ventilated for so long and needed the tube changed quite a bit he sustained severe scarring to his windpipe which meant every time they tried to get him of the vent, his windpipe would swell so badly hed stop breathing and need venting again,so from august until mid october he went through several attempts to reconstruct and widen his damaged windpipe/larnyx, and hed be ok for a few days, then it would all start again. That was until bobby made them do something a bit more permanant, how you might ask well bobby decided to give up his fight, and by this i mean his heart stopped, not just his usual apneas which we'd grown used to, well after what seemed like ages they finally got him back, and decided that unless he had a tracky this could keep happening, and despite it scaring the hell out of us, we had to give him a chance, after all hed been through.
Bobby was a true soldier and i know that he tried so hard to stay with us, in the end before he gained his wings hed gone through 17 operations, and only made it home for 5 short weeks, in his 20 months, he was so strong and fought so very hard against constant obstacles that kept getting in his way, he proved all the docs wrong and went on to drink from bottles and have solids and boy did he love his dummy.
Even right at the very end and drugged up to his eyeballs on a cocktail of drugs that would have put an adult into the land of nod, just so you understand how strong his will to live was, bobby was on subcut morphine and midaz, and he was on huge doses were he'd built up such a tolerance, on top of that he had methadone and ketemine aswell as haloperidal, basically flying, but as soon as his dummy fell out hed go mental until you put it back in for him.
He had everyone me doctors nurses wrapped round hs finger, that is what i believe made him hang on for so long all the love, and kisses and cuddles he got from everyone, the nurses would fight over who was looking after him, id pop 4 a shower and they would steal him for cuddles, bobby going had such a huge impact on so many lives, he broke so many hearts, but i know his poor tired body had had enough, he'd put up such a fight and done his mummy and daddy proud. We couldnt have asked him to go on any longer he was in so much pain and had wasted away to a tiny 8lbs 7 oz when he left us, the images of his poor little body will haunt me for the rest of my life, but he was and will always be my very own little superhero, its in his name you see Bravest Of Babies BOB.
xxxxxxxxxxR.I.P. Bravest Of Babies xxxxxxxxxx
In loving memory of a very special son, far too special for earth,bobby we are so grateful for the 20 months you gave us.
we wish it had been a lot longer but you did us proud! thankyou son, you will never ever be replaced, you really was one in a million, and we all miss you so much, we are just pleased you are no longer in pain, until we meet again baby sweet dreams baby love always mummy and daddy xxxxx
sammie and luke,your brother and sister miss you so much too, nanny and grandad miss seeing you to, babe infact everyone who met you misses you as you were 1 VERY special little soldier xxxxx
BOBBY NOW HAS A NEW BABY BROTHER HARVEY BORN 25TH JUNE 2009 HE WAS 10 WEEKS EARLY BUT BECAUSE OF YOU BOBBY HE WAS WATCHED EXTRA CAREFULLY AND IS WELL ONLY HAD TO SPEND 6 WEEKS IN HOSPITAL WITH HIM, XXXX