My daughter couldn’t stop vomiting but I wasn’t prepared for such a stark diagnosis…
As I held my baby girl, Ava, I said, ‘How’s my little one doing?’
Ava was a bright spark but, at five months old, I’d noticed a change.
She had suddenly become lethargic.
Maybe she’s coming down with a cold, I thought.
Then she began vomiting after feeds.
Two days on, her vomit became luminous green and, feeling worried, I took her to hospital.
‘She’s got a throat infection,’ the doctor said.
However, she didn’t have any symptoms of a throat infection, so I found that frustrating.
Still worried, I took her to the GP the next day.
When we arrived, Ava was given water through
a syringe to get fluids in her, but she brought it all back up.
‘We’re not sure what’s wrong but if there’s no improvement tomorrow, go to another hospital,’ the doctor said.
However, when we got home, Ava became unresponsive and wouldn’t wake up.
Panicking, I got in the car with my mum and we drove to Peterborough Hospital.
Ava had tests but three doctors couldn’t work out what was wrong with her.
She was so poorly, she stayed in overnight.
As she slept, she kicked the cannula tube out of her foot, so the nurse called a doctor to reattach it.
When he arrived, he spotted the green vomit on one of her bibs.
‘This colour vomit only comes from a bowel obstruction,’ he said. ‘She’ll need surgery right away.’
I felt a sense of relief as we finally knew why she was so poorly, but I was terrified about the operation.
We were blue-lighted to Leicester, where Ava had specialist surgery.
As Mum and I waited for news, it was the tensest few hours of my life.
When the surgeon emerged, he said Ava had one of the worst bowel obstructions that he had ever seen.
‘If you’d waited even another hour, she would’ve died,’ he said.
But she’d made it through the operation.
We were told she’d be in hospital for two weeks, but she perked up after just two days and we were able to go home.
It took a while for her to recover fully, but she’s seven now and a fantastic gymnast. It’s incredible
how she hasn’t let things hold her back – and how lucky we were to have
that doctor.
By Georgina Hodgkinson, 25, of Grantham, Lincs