LITTLE Seamus Simpson has been hailed by his parents as their “wee hardy Highlander” after he survived being born with organs on the outside of his body.
He was so delicate at birth that doctors immediately wrapped him in cling film to protect his intestines, which escaped through a hole in his stomach.
For the next four days, Seamus had his bowel suspended in a plastic bag above him to allow it to fall gently back into his body.
He also battled life-threatening infections and has a potentially dangerous cyst in his bowel.
But after a marathon fight for life in hospital more than 100 miles from home, there is finally some relief for Seamus. The battling baby is now home with proud parents Bryan and Laura, who had been given the option to terminate the pregnancy when a routine scan picked up the rare defect at 12 weeks.
Mrs Simpson, 32, from Fort William, said: “We’ve been to hell and back, but he’s come through it all.
“He’s such a fun, happy wee man and we just love him to bits.
“He’s stubborn and determined and, just like his dad, he does everything to one hundred per cent. He’s our wee hardy Highlander.”
Seamus developed a rare form of hernia called gastroschisis, which meant the abdominal wall failed to develop properly in the womb, allowing the intestines, which measure around 11ft in newborns, to grow outside his body. At first, experts did not know how many of his organs were on the outside, but they quickly assured his parents it was only his large and small intestines.
Mrs Simpson, a primary school teacher, said: “When you go for a scan you always have in the back of your mind that something could go wrong, but you just think ‘it’ll never happen to me’.
“We were given the option whether we wanted to continue with the pregnancy but, at the end of the day, it’s your baby and, no matter what comes, you love them the way they are.”
To make sure Seamus did not grow too big, for fear his intestines could be damaged, Mrs Simpson was induced just before 37 weeks of the pregnancy. And on November 8, 2016, he was delivered at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, weighing 5lb 4oz.
But the parents’ joy was short-lived as, the day before Seamus was due to get home, he was struck down with a life-threatening respiratory infection.
Mrs Simpson said: “After everything he had been through, I thought ‘don’t tell me something else is wrong’, but he got through it and it was just a relief after all that to get him home.”
To thank staff at the Ronald McDonald House, which provides accommodation for families of sick children and allowed Seamus’ parents to stay close to their son during his five-week ordeal in hospital, Mr Simpson has collected more than £3,000 for the charity by running the Inverness half-marathon.
Mr Simpson, a 29-year-old process operator, said: “It costs about half a million pounds a year to run the house.”
He added: “We would have been snookered without it down in Glasgow.”
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