Parents' pride at taking part in clinical research to help premature babies

Harry Murdoch was born to Stephanie George ( 27) and Lee Murdoch (30) at Lancashire Women and

Newborn Centre, in Burnley General Teaching Hospital, on November 16th, 2016.

Having enjoyed a normal pregnancy, Stephanie was expecting to give birth around the typical due date of 40 weeks.

It was her first child and the couple had no family history of premature births.

However, with little warning, Harry was born at only 24 weeks and five days – putting him in the

category of “extremely pre-term”.

Most babies born following a standard pregnancy will weigh between 5lbs 8oz (2,500 grams) and

8lbs 13oz (4,000g). But Harry weighed only 1lb 14oz (870g).

From the outset, he was treated for a range of complications in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

(NICU).

These included bleeds on the brain, sepsis, meningitis and a disease of the eye called Retinopathy of

Prematurity (ROP).

Harry also required 10 blood transfusions and a platelet transfusion.

Stephanie and Lee were told their son had only a 50-50 chance of survival, while doctors also had to

make them aware most surviving 24-week pre-terms have lasting disabilities.

Stephanie, a student nurse, said: “We were terrified and didn’t know if he would live. We were given

the statistics and the doctors had to be completely honest with us.

“He had reams of medical problems and it was like every body system was encountering problems

because Harry’s body was effectively being used way too early.”

Shortly after the birth, one of NICU’s research nurses approached Stephanie and Lee about the

possibility of Harry taking part in a research study called Planet-2.

Planet-2 is an abbreviation for Platelets for Neonatal Transfusion 2. It is part of the National Institute

for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) portfolio of studies being carried out to

constantly improve treatments and patient outcomes.

This particular study is helping medics to better understand when to give transfusions of platelets to

premature babies with low platelet counts.