Tara Sky Kelly was born in Toowoomba Hospital, Queensland, Australia on Wednesday May 7th 2008 at 11:10am AEST. She weighed 2430 grams (5lb 6oz) and was 48cm long.


Due to an amniotic band (which carries a high risk of haemorrhaging during natural delivery) and polyhydroamniosis (too much amniotic fluid), mum Emma had to undergo a planned caesarean section on Wednesday May 7th 2008, one week before the due date of May 14th. At 6:45am, Emma began the procedures for admission to hospital, and by 10:30am was in theatre having her epidural administered. Dad Richard was able to join Emma in theatre for the operation, which was to include tubal ligation.


At 11:10am, the new baby was cut from Emma, and it was immediately obvious that there were problems. Due to the increased fluid, bub was literally drowning, her lungs flooded with amniotic fluid. The doctors sucked a lot of the fluid out and bagged her to help her breath, forcing air into her lungs. She made some coughing noises and let out a short, weak cry, and was stable. While Emma was being stitched up, mum and dad cuddled the newborn and discussed names, agreeing on Tara Sky.

Tara was breathing steadily, but the fluid still in her lungs and windpipe made an audible gurgling noise, and she continued to cough up a lot of fluid. It was decided that she was well enough to join Emma in the ward following her surgery, and breast feeding was attempted (not very successfully - a sign of problems to come).


After a couple of hours in the ward, Tara was still not sounding 100% all right. She was taken to special care, accompanied by dad, where a tube was to be inserted into her throat and an xray taken to check on things. The nurses were unable to insert the tube more than 10cm, which is unusual. An xray was taken and it became clear that there was a serious problem - Tara had oesophageal atresia with a distal tracheo-oesophageal fistula, meaning her oesophagus simply stopped some way down her throat, and was not connected to her stomach, and that the oesophagus instead was connected further down to the trachea. This occurs in only 0.03% of births, and means food cannot pass from the mouth to stomach, and air breathed in goes into the gut as well as the lungs. The only option to correct this congenital defect is major surgery, which cannot be performed in Toowoomba.


At 8:30pm, Tara was transferred to Royal Brisbane Hospital by helicopter, where the surgery will be performed the next day. Mum will also be transferred to Brisbane shortly. Fingers crossed for a successful operation.

The diagram on the left shows Tara's abnormal oesophagus and windpipe. The diagram on the right shows what the oesophagus and windpipe should look like after a successful surgery.