Another day of discovering the clippings kept by my late mother. Two newspapers with similar headlines. Both of them are reporting the same story.

The Daily Mail has the headline "One day old baby saved in major heart operation", with a sub heading declaring "It was a tremendous piece of  surgery. A few years ago she would have died".

The Belfast Telegraph in Northern Ireland has the head line seen in the title above.

BABY HEART "FIRST". Operation on day - old girl!!

In the 1970's the regular news in Ireland was of death and violence as terrorism took its toll on innocent life. But these headlines, dated in November 1977 took news in a different direction. It was a message of hope in a world of hopelessness.

The story recounts how Professor Philip Caves, aged 37, a native of Belfast, performed this operation in Glasgow on a baby one day old. One can sense how delicate this operation was as they described the heart being operated on was a mere 3 inches in size, and it "was so tiny it was like mending a watch".

The baby was born in a small hospital in the north of Scotland in Elgin, before taking the journey first to Aberdeen, and then flying by helicopter to Glasgow. The 3rd daughter of an Electronic Technician in the air force and his wife. 

Hope, in the midst of what seemed impossible!

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Those were the headlines, the public face of what was happening in November 1977. What about the private moments away from the glare of the media? A father and mother, talking through those anxious moments. A sea change of emotions through those brief days. The elation of new life, the puzzlement at the added interest the staff was taking in the maternity unit, the anxiety and concern, realising that life can be so fragile.

There were the moments of tears, along with the times of encouragement as humanity showed its caring face, encouraging and consoling in times of uncertainty. Always hoping against hope, though knowing the worst thoughts can always be possible.

The operation was a success, and Professor Caves did a wonderful job. Yet at 3 days of age the baby of hope was to come to the end of her short life, not because the operation was a failure, far from it, but because a further heart defect undiagnosed had emerged.

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Faith Dawn Magee, as the baby was called, was OUR baby, our 3rd daughter.  It is therefore, for us, more than a headline in the media. I remember hearing those words that no parent wishes to hear, and taking that long walk to the room where my wife was as a patient, wondering how I should share the news.

These are situations that have no clear answers. Later we were to discover that this all resulted from  Diabetes that only appeared through pregnancy, but there will always be questions that have no answers.

Yet there are some positive things that we cling to. We know the operation was a success, and we are concious of the amount of time and effort was given to that wee life. We are aware that much was learnt fom those few days which have been the means of giving life to other wee children. And though there are questions that are never answered we know that we could not have moved on in our lives without the confidence that we sensed that we were not alone, and in our faith we felt the comfort of the God who gave to us life, albeit for a short time, in our own wee baby, Faith.

He promised He would never leave us, and for us that was more than a scriptural verse open to debate beween those of differring persuassions, it was our experience.