Laughing again, Ruby Lambert, the girl whose heart attack was started by alarm

Published: 22nd April, 2011
by ANDREW JOHNSON

A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl left with severe brain injuries after suffering a heart attack at her Islington primary school will fly to America with her parents on Tuesday for a year of intensive treatment.

Ruby Lambert’s mother and father are hoping daughter Ruby will re­cover enough at a specialist unit in Philadelphia for her to return to Prior Weston Primary School in White Cross Street, Bunhill.

First, however, they need to raise £300,000 to pay for the daily year-long treatment.

It will be a year on Wednesday since Ruby’s heart attack, which was triggered by a fire alarm as she walked down the corridor of the school.

The attack – later discovered to be the result of a rare heart condition – left her with brain injuries so severe that at one point doctors feared she would not survive.

Her life was saved thanks to assistant teacher Melanie Scott, who performed emergency resuscitation in the corridor. 

Two days after the attack it emerged that Ruby suffered from a rare condition which affects the heart’s rhythm. It is an inherited genetic disorder, al­though Ruby is the first person in her family to suffer from it thanks to a gene mutation.

This week, her mother Catherine Newell spoke of Ruby’s incredible recovery to date and praised friends and staff at the primary school who have rallied round to help raise money for her treatment.

“Ruby wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the assistant teacher,” she said. “If the heart attack had happened anywhere else Ruby would not have survived because not many people, including myself, know how to perform CPR. 

“The staff at the school have been amazing. From the first day in intensive care they sent cards, CDs of the children singing and have helped to raise money for Ruby’s treatment.”

Former headteacher Mary Caven, who retired from Prior Weston last year, is chairwoman of the Ruby Lambert Trust, based in Clerkenwell, which is hoping to raise the £300,000 to pay for the intensive therapy she will need every day during her year-long stay at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Ms Newell, 38, a PhD student at the School of African and Oriental Studies, will be taking up her place as a Fulbright Scholar at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, which she had to defer following her daughter’s illness. 

Ruby’s father, Simon Lambert, 37, also gave up his job as a primary school teacher. 

Ms Newell added that Ruby hasn’t been home since her heart stopped. She was treated first at the Royal London Hospital, then Great Ormond Street and is now at a specialist unit in Surrey.

“For two days after the attack Ruby’s heart rhythm was all over the place,” she said. “Then she was diagnosed with a rare heart condition called CPVT. It means she couldn’t cope with the adrenaline from the shock of the alarm going off, even though she knew there was going to be a drill and we had talked about it.”

Although doctors were at first pessimistic about Ruby’s chances, in the last year she has started to move and even laughed for the first time a few days ago.

“Her brain injuries were so severe that initially we were told she was brain dead,” Ms Newell added. “Then she started moving so that wasn’t the case. At the moment she uses a wheelchair and can hardly speak, so she’s profoundly disabled. But there are no definites with brain injuries in children. She can see and hear and think, she’s still Ruby. So we’re trying to access that. 

“A full recovery is probably not possible unless they do something soon with stem cells. But there’s huge potential for progress. America is much further ahead in this type of treatment. 

“Just recently Ruby started laughing again. Someone sneezed and she burst out laughing. It was amazing to see. We spent the day trying to keep her giggling.”

The couple, who live in Bethnal Green, are now facing the future with a disabled child. Ms Newell added that the trip to America is doubly daunting because of her daughter’s treatment and also because she is picking up her career again.

“You realise that you are parents of a disabled child and have to decide whether you are going to carry on or have a life on benefits,” she said. “It’s a big challenge.”

To make a donation, go to one4ruby.com