Fareham baby nearly ‘starved to death’ because of rare condition

A baby nearly starved to death because of a rare condition - which doctors diagnosed as indigestion, his parents say.
Aimee Byron's baby Jamie who almost died after he was unable to keep food down due to a digestive complication that required delicate surgery. Picture: SWNSAimee Byron's baby Jamie who almost died after he was unable to keep food down due to a digestive complication that required delicate surgery. Picture: SWNS
Aimee Byron's baby Jamie who almost died after he was unable to keep food down due to a digestive complication that required delicate surgery. Picture: SWNS

Jamie Jones from Fareham was given less than a week to live as his little body rejected all food - and even milk.

The youngster, who was born on January 23 at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham, would projectile vomit over a metre across the room every time mum Aimee Byron tried to feed him.

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The 18-year-old said: ‘I could see he was losing weight and he just couldn’t keep food down. He seemed in pain and should have been gaining weight, not losing it.

Aimee Byron, 18, from Fareham in Hampshire who almost lost her baby Jamie after he was unable to keep food down due to a digestive complication that required delicate surgery. Picture: SWNSAimee Byron, 18, from Fareham in Hampshire who almost lost her baby Jamie after he was unable to keep food down due to a digestive complication that required delicate surgery. Picture: SWNS
Aimee Byron, 18, from Fareham in Hampshire who almost lost her baby Jamie after he was unable to keep food down due to a digestive complication that required delicate surgery. Picture: SWNS

‘All the clothes we bought him didn’t fit anymore. I was scared stiff thinking ‘what on earth is wrong?’.

Aimee says in the space of three weeks, Jamie was seen by 12 medical professionals as she and partner Will Jones, 21, tried to find out what was wrong. She says a GP suggested Jamie take heartburn and indigestion medicine.

After an incident where Jamie filled his pram with sick, she phoned 111 and was told to take her baby to A&E before being sent home and advised Jamie was most likely suffering from a virus or milk allergy.

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The optical assistant said: ‘I felt like I had been treating like a silly young mum and I felt like I hadn’t been taken seriously.

Aimee Byron's baby Jamie who almost died after he was unable to keep food down due to a digestive complication that required delicate surgery. Pciture: SWNSAimee Byron's baby Jamie who almost died after he was unable to keep food down due to a digestive complication that required delicate surgery. Pciture: SWNS
Aimee Byron's baby Jamie who almost died after he was unable to keep food down due to a digestive complication that required delicate surgery. Pciture: SWNS

‘We just kept getting told it was nothing to worry about and he will be fine. I started to think the problem was me. I thought I was failing as a mum.’

But thanks to an eagle-eyed midwife who spotted something wrong in Jamie’s medical notes, blood tests, an ultrasound scan and a physical assessment were carried out on February 14 at QA Hospital and pyloric stenosis was discovered – a narrowing of the opening from the stomach to the first part of the small intestine.

He underwent a life-saving procedure to widen his stomach passage the next day at Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital in Brighton.

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Medics told Aimee and Will their baby was less than a week away from possible death by starvation.

Aimee said: ‘He was a couple of days away from dying when he had the operation. If he’d have been left another week he probably wouldn’t be here now. 

‘If that midwife hadn’t have called us then Jamie probably wouldn’t be here now. It was so scary to hear that. I was in tears. I always knew something was wrong.’

Within days of the operation Aimee says Jamie like a ‘whole new baby’.

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She added: ‘We had stood watching him starve to death. But the operation changed our lives. We could finally start our family life. He was perfect. He started smiling and giggling.

‘We had to fight for Jamie because he doesn’t have a voice and it’s important for other new mums and dads to do the same.’

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