Click here to edit title

Alfie had to be intubated and he was rushed to the Royal London Hospital NICU, where he underwent induced hypothermia treatment using a Criticool unit (Funded by Noah's Big Charity). After 3 days Alfie was 'warmed up' but the doctors said he wasn't breathing on his own and felt he never would. A further agonising 24 hours later, Alfie astounded us all by breathing on his own. The doctors removed his breathing tubes and with a quick blast of oxygen from a CPAP machiine and he was breathing fine on his own.

The next 2 weeks was a rollercoaster of ups and downs. We were told he may never suck and feed normally and so he had to have a NG tube inserted into his nose. At the end of the 2nd week Alfie was stable enough to be transferred back to Southend, where we spent another 2 weeks tying to build up Alfie's weight. We finally got Alfie home after this, and although we were happy to have him there we knew we had a long way to go.

The next few months was a blur of hospital appointments and worry. Four months later Alfie was diagnosed with Infantile Spasms.  A rare form of epilepsy and was having around 400 small seizures a day. He was put on various medication which made him really sleepy. He started the Ketogenic diet at GOSH and 2 months later his seizures had halved.

Alfie is still having around 100 seizures a day and we are trying lots of different things to help these. We are still busy with hospitals, Physio's and all sorts of other treatments. But he's doing so much better than the doctors thought and he continues to amaze us everyday.

We don't doubt for a second that without undergoing the cooling treatment with the Criticool unit - Alfie may not be with us today.