Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I WILL NEVER GIVE UP FIGHT FOR MY ALFIE..
“best thing in the world” to happen to her and Tom when the tot was born in May 2016. She said: “Alfie was a shock because we were not trying for a baby.
“He was absolutely gorgeous, he was a dream. And he suits his name. He has got the face of a little Alfie.”
But the couple started having concerns about their son a few months later when they noticed he was not progressing as normal.
Kate added: “He was not reaching his milestones, sitting up, hand-eye co-ordination. He was not babbling much and his swallowing reflex wasn’t good. At the age of seven months he was still on puree, like three-month baby food.
“Other than that, though, he was the perfect baby. He had the funniest laugh. Tummy giggles right from the get-go. He was just a loving boy, he was so content.”
Kate took Alfie to her GP three times but was told there was little to worry about.
But she knew things were not right and asked her health visitor to have a word with the doctor. In November 2016 medics agreed to look at her son and he had an MRI scan. Weeks later, he fell seriously ill and was rushed to Alder Hey.
Kate said: “He was dead lethargic. He was floppy and lifeless. He was still breathing but it was shallower.
“I was clicking in front of his eyes and he was not responsive and then the jerking came on. All of his limbs started jerking and his eyes started rolling back.” Alfie started having
seizures. Kate added: “I would run away and scream. It was traumatising.” He son deteriorated and was taken to intensive care.
Fighting back tears, Kate said: “Me and Tom broke down in hysterics. Our baby is on life support. There is nothing worse to hear.”
Things got even worse on New Year’s Eve when doctors feared Alfie’s life was coming to an end.
His mum added: “We were told he had four to six hours to live. I was not aware you could turn kids’ machines off, I thought you just waited for them to pass. Ever since then every meeting we have had has never been about Alfie’s progress, it has just been, ‘Take him off life support.’” Kate does not share Tom’s Catholic faith but does believe in God and said: “I do believe where there is life, their should be hope.
“The toll it has taken on us is unbelievable. It has made me stronger, don’t get me wrong. There are times when me and Tom will go to a meeting and Tom will come out in floods of tears and I will walk out with the straightest face and I will say, stop crying, take it as it comes. It is unreal. You can’t contemplate it. I will sit there and say even though I have nearly lost my child I could still never sit with another parent who has lost or is about to lose their child and comfort them. Because there is no comfort that you can give.
“And that is one thing that I have had to accept. When we were told Alfie was going to die, that is one thing I searched for, I was going round asking people, ‘Am I going to be ok? Is everything going to be ok?’
“I wanted someone to turn round and tell me everything is going to be ok, I was looking for answers that I was never going to get.
“Because I was so desperate I wanted some comfort but you don’t get comfort from anywhere or anything, except, the most comfort we get is when we are lying by his bedside. That is the best it gets.” Tom said: “It is a bond I have never seen before, Kate and Alfie, you just could not separate them. She is so devoted. I could not have asked for a better partner and Alfie could not have asked for a better mum.” Kate and Tom were at Liverpool family court yesterday on the hearing’s fourth day. They will today give evidence to Mr Justice Hayden. Alfie is in a “deep coma”. Doctors said he has a “catastrophic degradation” of brain tissue, leaving him in a “semi-vegetative” state. Experts do not know what caused his condition but new scans last week revealed further brain damage, the judge was told. One said his condition is such a rarity it could even one day be called “Alfie’s disease”.