A man whose family was told they would lose him was given the gift of purpose when his daughter showed her gender scan: the granddaughter he had dreamed of was on the way. He then summoned every shred of strength he had to make a miraculous recovery in time to meet the baby.
Edward “Eddie” O’Grady, 59, is a security manager in hospitality who lives in Northampton, England. His daughter Lucy Watts, 30, is a bridal hairstylist and is married to a 36-year-old electrician, Gary. The couple lives in Northamptonshire with their 3-year-old “happy chappy” son, Peter, and 1-month-old daughter, Amelia Charlotte Jayne.
It was Amelia who gave her grandfather a new reason to live.
Lucy told The Epoch Times that her father’s weight had begun dropping drastically in September 2021. By Christmas that year, Eddie was unrecognizable. It took almost a year for doctors to diagnose that he was suffering from refractory celiac disease.
“For many months the doctors told us my father was a medical mystery, and that we were likely to lose him as his illness had ravaged his body, and that we were likely to lose him as his illness had ravaged his body leaving his vital organs were failing him,” Lucy said.
Eddie was frustrated and confused. He said: “[T]here didn’t appear to be an answer as to why I was experiencing the symptoms. I also felt very concerned as the consultants continued to ’scratch their heads,' not being able to identify the cause.”
Learning about his health condition, the family felt absolutely “devastated.”
However, through it all, Eddie’s wife stood with him and cared for him day and night in the hospital despite the restrictions and hospitals trying to stop her.
“We pulled together as a family to ensure he had the best possible chance to recover from this illness,” Lucy said. “And if he couldn’t recover to ensure we were by his side.”
Lucy recalled that in the past, her parents had shared with her that all their “dreams would come true,” if they could meet their granddaughter.
On May 27, 2022, when Lucy and her family were packing and moving to another house she found a pregnancy test and decided to take it. To her surprise, she found out that she was pregnant.
Lucy decided to share the good news with her father who was in poor health condition at that time. However, on listening to the news and seeing her pregnancy test, he was “excited and very emotional.”
Eddie’s recovery began shortly afterward. After Lucy had a gender test done, she went back to the hospital and presented her parents with a scan that had a little pink bow inside to indicate her gender.
“My parents were overjoyed,” Lucy said. “I told [my father] the baby we were expecting was in fact Amelia, our little girl. The little girl my parents had hoped for all those months before!”
Lucy knew that when she had a daughter, she would name her little girl Amelia.
After Eddie’s diagnosis in August 2021, he was placed on TPN (total parenteral nutrition) and fed intravenously 24/7, bypassing his stomach and keeping him alive. He was on steroids and daily autoimmune suppressants, which put an end to chronic diarrhea that had meant up to a dozen visits to the bathroom overnight. From a low of 35 kg (approx. 77 pounds), he gained weight slowly back to 61 kg (approx. 134 pounds), almost his normal weight of 70 kg (approx. 154 pounds).
“We were all so grateful he was on the mend,” Lucy said. “It’s something we had all prayed for! His personality returned, his determination was stronger than ever, and his mobility and strength improved gradually. His skin wasn’t so frail, his hair got thicker, his face filled out again, and he no longer looked gaunt. He was slowly starting to look like my dad again.”
Eddie was discharged from the hospital in mid-October after nine weeks in the digestive disorder unit. His TPN feed tube will be reviewed at the end of February.
Baby Amelia was born on Jan. 17, 2023. Lucy’s feeling that she had “won the lottery” went stratospheric when her father, five months into his recovery, arrived to meet his granddaughter, the first baby girl of her generation in the family.
“She is perfect in every way!” Eddie said. “The bond I feel with Amelia is precious, and I know the future is going to be great ... the feeling of excitement and pride with our little girl giving birth to her little girl is amazing. I felt that nothing was going to stop me being a big part of our granddaughter’s life.”
Looking back, Eddie feels he’s extremely lucky to be alive. “I feel like the luckiest man in the world,” he said, sharing his family philosophy. “Always stay positive, never give up, and don’t be afraid to challenge ... it’s good to talk, but it’s better to listen!”
He added: “Whilst in hospital, my daughter would write messages to me on the mirror in my hospital room. One message stayed with me, which read, ‘The task ahead of you is never greater than the strength within you.’”
Eddie knows that he had an incredibly close call since the doctors informed him that he had no reserves left in his body and that he had a medical DNR (do not resuscitate) in place because it would be “undignified and unsuccessful” to try to revive him if he ever had a heart attack.
However, this only gave him the “drive to prove them wrong.”
