Charlotte Campbell hugging her dying twin Esme (Picture: Mercury)
A mother has shared a photo of her premature baby’s ‘goodbye hug’ for her dying twin sister just days before she passed away.
Amy Campbell described it as the touching moment newborn baby Charlotte wrapped her arm around her poorly twin sister Esme.
Just moments earlier the girls’ parents had received the devastating news that Esme had an extreme amount of fluid on her brain and would have no quality of life.
Amy asked for her daughters to be put on her chest for the last time when baby Charlotte made the gesture.
The emotional photo of the twins’ embrace was taken on August 27, 2016 and Esme died in the early hours of August 30, 2016.
Amy, who is now 38 weeks pregnant with a baby boy, said: ‘We knew we didn’t want Esme to suffer but how do you decide when to switch off your baby’s life support? It was a massive decision.
‘All I did know was that before she died I wanted them to meet one another.’
Charlotte Campbell (in white)and Esme Campbell (in pink) at their christening. (Picture: Mercury)
Special needs teacher Amy, 30, and husband Conor, 32, were over the moon to discover they were expecting twins.
At 24 weeks Amy was rushed to hospital having gone into early labour. Medics managed to stop her giving birth for 17 days but the twins were born severely premature at 26 weeks and five days on July 10, 2016.
Esme was originally the stronger sister, weighing 2.2lbs while her non-identical twin Charlotte weighed 2lbs.
They spent weeks battling for survival in Leeds General Infirmary until tests revealed that the ventricles in Esme’s brain had filled with so much fluid and she would have no quality of life.
Amy and Conor, a commerical manager, made the heartbreaking decision to switch off their baby girl’s life support.
Determined for their daughters to ‘meet’ before Esme passed away, the first-time parents from Leeds, Yorks, asked for the nurses to help them hold the girls at the same time.
Amy holds her daughters for the first time. (Picture: Mercury)
‘Conor and I had never been able to hold them both at the same time so the nurses arranged to help us out. They were really brilliant the whole way through,’ she said.
‘The nurses placed them on my chest and Charlotte put her arm around Esme and I thought “they love each other”.
‘It was probably Charlotte just getting comfortable but it would be beautiful to think she was giving her sister a big cuddle. She is such a caring girl that maybe she was hugging her.
‘That moment of having them both snuggled up in my arms was the best moment of my life. Despite the devastation of what we had just been told, in that moment everything felt so right.’
Amy and Conor arranged a christening for Charlotte and Esme on the ward at Leeds General Infirmary on Sunday August 28, 2016.
Esme’s life support was turned off the following day and she died in her mother’s arms 12 hours later.
Amy said: ‘It’s like she needed it to be on her terms, she would decide when she was going to go.
‘I tried not cry because I wanted her to be surrounded by happiness and love and strength. I wanted her to remember that she had a strong mum and she shouldn’t be scared of where she was going next.’
Amy and Conor Campbell held Esme for 12 hours before she died (Picture: Mercury)
Charlotte, now 22 months, came home with her mum and dad on the twins’ due date of October 10, 2016 and has been thriving ever since.
Amy and Conor, who met 12 years ago on the rowing team at Northumbria University, have since set up a non-profit organisation in Esme’s memory called Campbellinas – their nickname for the twins.
The couple have raise more than £10,000 so far as a way of giving something back and saying ‘thank you’ for all the support they received from the Leeds hospital.
Amy has also set up a blog called This Is My Brave Face to help other families coping with the loss of a child.