Little Ava Mear somehow managed to survive four heart attacks within the space of an hour, and her family have no doubt it’s because of the prayers of God’s people…

 

Clive and Mary-Jane Mear faced the hardest situation for any parent when they were told by doctors to say goodbye to their little girl – after her heart stopped three times.

But four-year-old Ava stunned medics when she pulled through and miraculously survived her heart stopping for a fourth time in 45 minutes after doctors hooked her up to an artificial lung and heart machine.

The Mears, parents to Ava, who is now five, and her brother Alfie, ten, are members of Elim’s Luton Christian Fellowship (known locally as LCF), and are now thanking God and their family and friends for the support they received when Ava was at her worst.

“Just knowing that she was covered in prayer was a great comfort,” Clive, 45, says. “I must admit that I would have thought that this would have tested my faith, but I never questioned it. I just knew that God was in control.

“You don’t have your daughter go through four heart attacks and live through that without some kind of intervention by God.

“How we would have got through this without knowing that somebody else was in control of it all, we just don’t know. The hardest thing as a father was having no control – there was absolutely nothing I could do. I couldn’t take the pain or the heart attacks away.

“If we hadn’t have had our faith we’d have gone mad by now. Ava’s life from the outset has not been easy, so we believe that the fact that she’s still here means she’s here for a purpose. We have always been grateful for both of our children – they are gifts from God.”

Ava was born with the cerebro- costo-mandibular syndrome, which means that she has no ribs on the front half of her body.

But the series of events that happened in January had no connection with her illness. She was admitted to Luton and Dunstable Hospital after her parents found her struggling to breathe.

After discovering a tiny rash, doctors suspected meningitis, and told the Mears that Ava needed to be moved to another hospital that could manage her care. Crucially, they chose Great Ormond Street as she was already under their care for her underlying condition.

“We said that we’d be better off there because they had all her notes, so they arranged things quickly, and once in the ambulance, we were there in under 40 minutes,” says Clive, a director of a charity marketing agency. “We later found out that there are only 20 of the machines that saved Ava’s life in the whole of the UK, in just four children’s hospitals – so we knew that God’s hand was on her.”

Upon arriving at Great Ormond Street, Ava was taken to be admitted while her parents were told to get a coffee.

“Within a few minutes two nurses appeared telling us we needed to go with them because Ava had gone into cardiac arrest,” Clive remembers. “We rushed upstairs and walked into the room to see a 6′ 6″ male nurse doing adult CPR on her chest, which was quite distressing to see.

“They got her back and it happened again, then for a third time. It was then that they turned to us and said, ‘She’s very weak and you really need to come and say goodbye.’ So we did the hardest thing that any parent could ever be told to do, and we said goodbye to Ava. Then they took us to the parent’s room where a lovely lady chaplain joined us and we prayed.

“Then a consultant knocked on the door, and told us, ‘We’ve got her back!’, and that there was a risky procedure which involved a machine called an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) which would, in effect, act as Ava’s heart.

“But it was very risky. I cut him short and just told him to do it and that I’d sign any papers later. As they were hooking her up she went into cardiac arrest for a fourth time, but thankfully the machine took over and it bypassed her heart.”

Ava spent the next 12 days on ECMO as, with the help of a kidney dialysis machine, it cleansed her blood. Then the Mears discovered what had caused the heart attacks.

“It turned out that she had had a severe reaction to the Strep A virus which in most people just causes a sore throat or tonsillitis,” Clive explains.

“In Ava, it got into her blood stream, and started to shut down her organs, including her heart, lungs and kidneys, causing her to have the multiple heart attacks. Due to the fluids being pumped in to deal with the infection, Ava swelled up like a balloon. The machines helped cleanse her blood of the virus.”

Months later, Ava still sleeps in hospital overnight with Mary- Jane, but she is slowly recovering and the Mears are now looking at how they can help others. “It’s been a great opportunity to spend time sharing with other parents,” Clive says.

“We’ve come out of hospital with our daughter but many parents don’t, so we’re so grateful.

“Every day Ava recovers a little more. She’s doing things that we thought she’d never be able to do by this stage in her recovery.

“I’ve been blogging on Facebook every day since day one about Ava’s journey, and I’ve had people say to me that they’ve not prayed in over 20 years, but that they’ve prayed for Ava. That just proves that God can use any circumstance to draw people to himself. Now we want to supply another ECMO machine to save other children’s lives.”

The Mears’ church, LCF, and the village community in Caddington where Ava lives, are raising money to buy another machine that saved her life. “We’ve launched Ava’s ECMO Challenge to raise money for another machine,” Clive says. “We’ve raised £17,000 so far and we need £80,000. The church has been great, and they are organising a number of fund raising events.”

A Great Ormond Street spokesman explains, “Ava is the only Group A streptococcal case who has gone on to develop toxic shock requiring ECMO at the hospital in the last two years.”

LCF pastor Alan West says, “Every Monday night since Ava was hospitalised, 60-80 people from the church have met to pray for her.

“I’ll never forget the first time that my wife and I saw her in the hospital and she was hooked up to all these machines that were keeping her alive. There just seemed so little hope but I was reminded of the verse in the Bible where Jesus said that if you have the faith of a mustard seed then God can do the rest. So along with Mary-Jane we prayed over Ava and it was definitely a mustard seed prayer – and the rest is just a miracle.

“When they came to church on Easter Sunday as a family it was so emotional and an incredible moment. Ava’s still recovering and now our prayer is that there will be no lasting damage.

“I’ve been moved by the kindness and generosity of the church at this time.”

To help buy the new ECMO machine, visit www.justgiving. com/avas-ecmo-challenge

 

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