LITTLE Louie Wood’s parents were told he would never reach certain milestones in his life after he was born with several serious health problems.
But the tot, who is now two, has already defied doctors by rolling over and sitting up. He wears leg splints and gaiters and has a special walking frame.
His parents Jodie Morgan and Tom Wood, of Greenside, Mapplewell, now want to raise £120,000 for surgery in America to help his muscles, which is not available on the NHS, specialist equipment and home adaptations.
Louie was born prematurely at 28 weeks and has quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy, severe periventricular leukomalacia (a type of brain injury), chronic lung disease, global development delay and nystagmus - involuntary movement of the eyes.
During pregnancy Jodie, 31, suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum, a condition which causes severe nausea, vomiting, weight loss and dehydration. It was this condition from which the Duchess of Cambridge suffered in her pregnancies.
But Jodie is also diabetic and takes insulin, which means she must eat.
Jodie also had the condition during her first pregnancy with son Jake, seven, but he does not have any health problems.
At 13 weeks’ pregnant with Louie, Jodie was admitted to Barnsley Hospital and put on a drip. At 20 weeks, her kidneys started to fail and at 26 weeks there were problems with the placenta.
She was transferred to a hospital in Cheshire where she gave birth to Louie at 28 weeks via emergency Caesarean section.
She said: “They didn’t even have time to put me to sleep, they just needed to get him out. I knew I had done well to get him to 28 weeks, but I knew he was very poorly and that there was going to be risks.
“It was a scary time but I was so unwell. I felt relief that I was going to be better but for the wrong reasons. It was catch 22.
“He didn’t cry for about four minutes because he wasn’t breathing. It was the longest four minutes ever for me. They whisked him straight off. He weighed two pounds.”
Louie spent four months in three different hospitals before being allowed home on 24-hour oxygen.
But after a couple of weeks at home Jodie and Tom noticed something wasn’t right, and that Louie just didn’t seem happy. They were told it was reflux, but took Louie to Sheffield Children’s Hospital for a second opinion, and were given the devastating news that he had multiple brain cysts. The neurologist said Louie was likely to have cerebral palsy but he would have to wait until he was two for an MRI scan as his brain was still developing.
The couple were told he wouldn’t be able to walk or crawl, roll, sit up or hold his head up.
Jodie said: “Louie is such as strong little boy. I just thought ‘I’m not giving up on him’. We went home and I did physiotherapy with him and read to him. In June last year I got him to roll over by himself. It was amazing. And in January it was Tom’s birthday and I got him sitting unaided.
“It just shows that not giving up was the right thing to do.
“Louie’s got his own personality, he’s very cheeky and his smile is so sweet.”
Jodie said Louie’s medical problems will get worse as he gets older. The family is now raising money for the surgery in America. They are also fundraising for specialist equipment such as seats to help him sit up in trollies and in restaurant high chairs and for adaptations to their house, such as a wet room.
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