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Thursday, July 19, 2007 | 14:51
A FIRST-time mum today told of the terrifying moment she feared for her baby son's life when he began projectile vomiting.
Michelle Crowley, 30, was petrified that four-month-old William might die after he transformed from his normal happy and bubbly self to a seriously ill child.
Today though, William is back in good health and Miss Crowley, of Lysander Drive, Ravenswood, Ipswich, praised staff at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital where she said he received outstanding care and speedy surgical treatment after developing a possibly fatal condition.
Miss Crowley, who lives with her partner, Matthew Clemence, 32, said things had started to go wrong on the morning of Saturday, July 6.
She said he started to shake and refuse his food, before the vomiting began.
The family went to the Riverside Clinic and then to Ipswich Hospital where they were told William probably had an infection. But instead of improving, the youngster got even worse so the family again went to hospital the next day where an x-ray revealed William's bowel was twice the size it should have been.
He was then transferred in an ambulance to the hospital in Norwich where he was treated for intussusception, an obstruction of the bowel, probably caused by a virus.
Miss Crowley said: “He'd open his eyes and be sick and then close them. There was no life in him. I did actually think I was going to lose him.
“The doctors in Norwich said that the bowel was quite badly damaged and so they had to remove 18cm of the bowel.
“He's your baby, you want to protect him but you're in a situation where you can't do anything.
“You stand there and watch and that is really frightening. Watching him in distress was too much for me.”
After an emergency operation, which lasted nearly two hours, on July 9, William finally came out of surgery with five per cent of his bowel removed, but doing well. And on Sunday, the brave tot finally returned home to his family.
Miss Crowley, who used to work for Anglia Telecom in Ipswich before taking maternity leave, added: “I was a bit scared of bringing him home but he is 90 per cent better.
“Being a first-time mum you worry about everything. He gets a rash and I panic. It was a learning curve for me.
“Thankfully we caught it in time, otherwise it could have been a lot worse. It can be life threatening.”
Would you like to praise medical staff? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.
Around 12 to15 babies a year are treated for intussusception each year at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.
In most cases a radiological procedure can solve the problem without the need for surgery but William's condition had progressed too far so instead he underwent emergency surgery.
Paediatric and neonatal surgeon, Ashish Minocha, who operated on William, said: “This condition is not uncommon in babies but we have to act quickly as they may become seriously unwell and deteriorate rapidly.
“In these cases, teamwork is of the utmost importance and we are all delighted to learn that William is now doing so well.”
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