This is the tragic journey of little leo from birth to 8 & 1/2 months old.

It started when Elaine was 38 weeks pregnant and was admitted with reduced movement on 3 separate occasions and each time Leo’s heart rate was drastically dropping for hours at a time but the hospital would not give Elaine a scan and put it down to Leo playing with the umbilical cord.

Leo was born on his due date with no complications and we had a couple of happy weeks with him then Leo became unwell and after contacting the NHS we were told it was normal baby snuffles but even when we attended a GP surgery the doctor refused to come into the room and not one care professional put a stethoscope on Leo’s chest.

By time Leo made it to 5 weeks he deteriorated drastically and we ended up calling an ambulance for him, He was taken to hospital after 45 minutes of the paramedics dilly dallying around (even showing Leo’s sister Emma inside the ambulance) and drove off with no urgency not even blue lights to the hospital.

Upon arrival to the hospital Leo was close to death, They had to put him into an induced coma and ventilate him, the hospital caused a Cardiac Arrest whilst venting him and the hospital then due to a communication error accused Elaine and Max of leaving Leo too long and contacted Social Services. Great Hospital.

They then told us that Leo needed to go to GOSH (Great ormond street hospital) and that if they couldn't take him then they would let Leo die.

It was an horrendous time for the family at this point but luckily GOSH came and took him.

Upon arrival to GOSH they rushed Leo to PICU, eventually they stablabised him, Leo was head to toe in wires, parents weren't allowed to touch him. They sat Max and Elaine down and said Leo may not make it through the night. Thankfully he made it through the night and after running a few tests they found out that his heart was too large.

He was then sent to the Flamingo Ward where the Cardio doctors stabilized his heart and he was kept in his induced coma for around 2 weeks and with multiple tests they thought he was well enough to be woken up and he has recovered. They were happy to send him home after a total of 4 weeks in hospital. They pre-warned the mother that the main sign of heart failure is him becoming more resistant to eating.

After one day of Leo being home he straight away started to resist eating or vomiting the food up. After advisement from GOSH to take Leo to hospital rather than calling 111, they refused to take him in and keep in overnight to run the relevant tests we took him home and continued to try this process 2 more times and finally on the 4th try with the help of the grandparent being on the doctors case about getting Leo the right medical attention they they decided to agree with everyone and keep him over night, after Leo fitting during the night the hospital decided not to give him his heart medication provided by GOSH.

With not taking his medication his heart rate Accelerated up to 250bpm (this is more than double than the average heart rate for a baby) the mother rang GOSH to see if the medical attention he was receiving from the hospital was sufficient and they advised it was not and told Elaine to tell the hospital to vent him and they were on their way.

On route to Gosh, they pre-warned the mum that if they needed to pull over their specialist ambulance they would with no hesitation to resuscitate if they needed to, as Leo was too unstable. Thankfully we got back to GOSH and Leo was covered in multiple wires and life saving meds were being pumped into him, Leo’s condition wasn’t improving.

The doctors then decided to put Leo on Ecmo two days later, they placed a Burlin Heart which supported the left side of his heart. He started to recover slightly. They woke him up and he became our Leo that we loved for a while, then unfortunately he started to get blood clots and infections.

The right side of his heart started to fail and they placed a second Burlin Heart on his right side and he continued to get blood clots and infections, and from that point he never really recovered. After finding out that his liver, kidneys and lungs started to fail there was nothing else they could do. This whole time he was on the Heart Transplant list but his little body gave up before he got his new heart.

After 8 ½ months, 10 surgerys, 2 different hospitals, 100s of amazing GOSH Nurses and doctors the parents decided that it was time and at 5:20am on Sunday 6th June 2021 we sadly said goodbye and he grew his wings and flew high.