'She was a real fighter' Parents pay tribute to their miracle baby Harlow

A MIRACLE baby died at just a few months old despite surgeons doing everything they could to help her - but her parents say the love from family, friends and strangers to raise money for her sendoff has been incredible. Klaire Carroll, 37, and Cassidy O'Connell, 26, worked overtime for years to afford IVF.

- Neil SHAW

But a 20-week scan revealed that their baby had a congenital heart defect, tethered spine and bowel condition. The parents were given three options: termination, palliative care or multiple surgeries.

Despite choosing the surgeries, baby Harlow Maeve Carroll-O'Connell did not survive. A GoFundMe page has since been set up to help the parents with funeral and memorial costs - which has already reached £3,000 of its £3,500 goal.

Klaire and Cassidy are now waiting for answers from the hospital on what happened to their baby girl. "We honestly cant believe how much support we have received from everyone," said Cassidy, from Stroud.

"It's helped us immensely with being able to fund the send off our girl deserves.

"What we are going through is unimaginable, no one deserves to lose a child - but the love we are receiving is helping us to get through each day. Harlow was treated for sepsis, meningitis, everything - but her infection markers were still high.

"They [the doctors] ran every test they could and couldn't find the cause. They decided to discharge her and we argued with the consultant we knew something was wrong and she needed to stay in hospital.