Parents vow not to give up on ‘little warrior’ who needs life-saving transplant

Devoted parents Nicola Higgins and Nickey Flood have vowed not to give up on their “little warrior” who needs a life-saving double lung transplant.

Nickey Jnr, now 14 months, weighed less than a bag of sugar when he was born, and medics warned the odds of survival were stacked against him. The tot was born at 27 weeks by emergency C-section, weighing in at 985 grams, and was put on CPAP after he stopped breathing.

He was intubated due to pulmonary hypertension and stenosis, having been born with a cleft palate, chronic lung disease, and heart disease. But despite doctors advising the family that palliative care may be their only option, Nickey marked his milestone first birthday in May 2024.

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Now the couple are in a race against time to raise money for a double lung transplant at a UK hospital to give their precious boy a fighting chance. They have launched a GoFundMe page to raise vital funds for the operation.

Dad Nickey Snr, 40, told the Irish Mirror: “Nickey is stable at present. He has regular echoes and appointments to keep an eye. But this can change in the blink of an eye and he can go into cardiac arrest without notice, which has happened.”

Nickey spent the first eight months of his life in hospital and Nickey Snr told how they “nearly lost him” several times.

In April, he was rushed to hospital after he stopped breathing – but the brave battler celebrated his first birthday at home just 16 days later. Nickey Snr revealed: “Daily challenges have become the new norm for us as a family.

“From the moment he wakes his oxygen tank is brought downstairs and set up for him. He gets all his medication through his peg. We do physio with him and we change his facial dressing for his oxygen, and we spend half an hour on every taster feed so he can taste different foods by licking them off a spoon.

“He can’t eat normally due to his cleft palate. His pulmonary stenosis makes it hard for him to gain weight. It is awful to watch your baby being sick at least five times a day.”

He told how Nickey Jnr was discharged from hospital and doctors said there was nothing more they could do. He said: “We were told to take plenty of photos and make memories, and were discharged with CPR training.

“We have nowhere to turn in Ireland but thank God our prayers are being answered [in the UK]. We need to go to the UK… as his parents we not going to sit and watch our one-year-old son die.

“Our son is on a waiting list but the hospital wants him brought over and observed and [to] put him on medication to slow the severity of his pulmonary stenosis down.”

Nickey is the youngest of seven children and the family faces significant costs to travel to the UK. His siblings are Courtney, 21, Killian, 19, Caoimhe, 18, Kelsey, 14, Dylan, four, and two-year-old Joseph.

Nickey Snr revealed: “The family has never been as close and protective, the help and love to Nickey from his family is never-ending. The double lung transplant would mean a lot. With every transplant there is risks as he could reject the new lungs.

“The first five years after [transplant] are very serious just in case something goes wrong. There’s also the risk of our son dying while getting this done, but we looked at every angle of this. We know it’s not a plain-sailing operation but it’s the only hope he has of living a reasonable life span.”

Little Nickey showed his fighting spirit when he was made an honorary Garda recently as part of the Little Blue Heroes initiative.

Nickey Snr and Nicola, 39, have set up an online fund hoping to raise €150,000, with €14,000 donated so far. Nickey Snr said: “He is known as our little warrior. From day one he fought to live and he has the will power to do it. We will support this in every single way we can. There are no words to describe how proud we are of our little warrior. We will go far and beyond to fight for life for our son, nothing will shut us down.”

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