SAVING AN ANGEL

After unimaginable tragedy, brave mum Tamica is celebrating every moment

- Leigh Reinhold

When Tamica W Bishop learned her eight-week-old baby girl Angel would need life-saving open-heart surgery, she was filled with a familiar feeling of dread.

Only four years earlier, Tamica's precious three-year-old daughter Indy Lee was tragically killed when an Anzac monument she was playing near toppled over.

The 425kg memorial at the Blackhead Bowling Club in New South Wales crushed Indy Lee right in front of her older brothers and sister, instantly destroying a young family with the horror of it all.

"It was the darkest day of our lives," says Tamica, who had been celebrating her mother Shiralee's 50th birthday when the accident happened. "It's something none of us will ever come to terms with."

But just as the family was finding some joy with the arrival of a gorgeous new baby, Tamica and her husband Robbie were suddenly facing the prospect of losing another child. "When the doctor told us about Angel's heart murmur, we were devastated," Tamica, 34, tells Woman's Day.

Tests showed Angel had a 7mm hole in her heart, which was growing. Naturally, Tamica was beside herself with worry, watching her baby often struggling for breath.