Brave little two-year-old Beatrix Archbold has spent a year in hospital waiting for a new heart

It is a year since Beatrix Archbold had a cardiac arrest. She was saved by surgeons at the Freeman Hospital who performed open heart surgery.

She now lives on a ward at the hospital in Newcastle, attached to tubes which act as her ventricles until she hopefully receives a new heart.

At just two years old, she has already spent half her life in hospital.

Her parents are dad Terry, and mum Cheryl who comes from Roker.

‘It feels like we have never done anything else’

Terry said: “It is 12 months in hospital and it feels like we have never done anything else. It gives you a different perspective on things.

"The reality is that, if it was not for that hospital and that machine, Bea would not be here.”

Beatrix is so used to a permanent life on the ward that she now knows the name of every nurse, and most of the parents of other seriously ill children.

"There is a bit of a competition between the staff to see whose name Bea is going to say first,” said Terry.

A new scare for a brave little girl

The Archbolds suffered a new scare this week when a deposit formed in the artificial ventricle which feeds into Beatrix’s brain, said Terry.

"It could have given her a stroke. It was a potentially fatal situation. We got a call at 2.15am saying Bea had to go to theatre. The ventricle had to be changed during surgery,” said dad.

Beatrix is pictured on video giving her own explanation of how she is getting ready to go to theatre.

Terry said: “She is so switched on. We woke her at 5.30am and told her what was happening. She said: “Alright, okay.”

Then, she casually gets on with watching Stick Man on her tablet.

A year since it all started

Beatrix first became ill in May last year.

The Archbold family, who live in Burnopfield, had returned from a trip to Disney World in Florida and thought Beatrix caught Covid.

She had stopped drinking, had a rash on her neck and the family dialled 111.

After going to A&E, a doctor at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead detected a heart murmur. Tests showed one side of her heart was enlarged and not functioning properly.

She had an operation to fit a line into her body so she could receive medication but she had a cardiac arrest and was saved by expert surgeons at the Freeman.

Beatrix is a mini Wonder Woman

During her time in hospital, she has learned to walk and talk.

She took her first steps at the hospital while dressed as Wonder Woman.

Terry and Cheryl spoke to the Sunderland Echo to urge Wearside people to start talking more about the sensitive topic of donating a child’s organs.

It is vital the discussion happens now because it is too upsetting for a parent to consider when they have just lost a child, they say.

The couple know only too well what losing a child is like.

Their daughter Isabel was stillborn five years ago. The couple agreed her heart could be donated for medical research.

For more on organ donation, visit https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/