Two years on...

A couple of weeks ago we returned to the John Hunter hospital for a two year check up. When Alfie was born he was lucky enough to be invited to take part in an ICE trial. The trial was to research the effects of cooling the body of trauma victims. Often adults who suffer trauma are cooled to limit the pressure and swelling on the brain which can occur up to three days after the event. Alfie spent three days in his chilled crib.

The hospital are now following up with babies that were offered cooling on those that were not. Alfie spent a good two or three hours. He was physically checked as well as tests to check his development in many different areas. He seemed to quite enjoy the puzzles to solve and the games he had to play. He also had to look at books pointing to specific objects and do some role play with cups, spoons and blankets etc. Beth and I were willing him to correctly answer the questions. We really wanted to help him out particularly when the words used in the questions were not those we use at home. He doesn't know what pants are but understands trousers (... we speak Queen's English here you know!)

He seemed to come through with flying colours. We were actually very surprised with some of things he could do when not asked by either of his parents!!! While we do not have the detailed results we were relieved to hear the words "normal," which when you consider his start in life is nothing short of amazing.