Niamh's fight against NEC

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Niamh was a 4 week old very content little baby girl until Boxing Day (26/12/16) she started having bloody diarrhoea. We took her to A&E they thought it may be an allergy and sent her home on new milk. 9 hours later we returned she had been screaming for hours and refusing bottles, she had become grey in colour and was cold to touch, when we arrived at A&E they said she had sepsis. After getting her stable and some tests later we were told she had NEC something we had never heard of and don't think we will ever forget it now, she became very unwell and was transferred to PICU where she stayed for just under one month, she was ventilated on New Year's Eve due to pain meds causing breathing difficulties and on 2nd January 2017 she had emergency surgery 16cm of intestine was removed and an ileostomy was formed, she became well enough after a few weeks to transfer to a ward however failed to thrive and remained dehydrated after 2 months on the ward they found she had a stricture so back to theatre and another 10cm of bowel removed and bowel resected. Since then she has done amazing and is now eating solid foods without any issues.