A three-year-old girl who was born with her intestines, liver and bowel outside of her abdomen is now able to live a normal life, thanks to an operation to internalise the organs.
Little Laurel Phizacklea was diagnosed with a major exomphalos three months before she was born, a condition that occurs when the abdomen muscles don’t close properly, causing some of the abdominal organs to stay outside.
As the Mirror has previously reported, Laurel’s stomach, liver and bowel were inside her umbilical cord but outside the abdomen.
This meant she had to be put on a ventilator following her birth and kept in the neonatal intensive care unit for 13 weeks after her birth.
Her mum Kelly, from Cambridge, said there was a stage during which the family would come home from hospital and wonder if they would ever be able to live a more normal life.
But now, after several intricate operations, Laurel has beat the odds and is living a normal life.
But she is now a happy toddler who now likes to show off her new tummy.
Mum, Kelly, said her daughter had initially been “scared” to see her new-look stomach, and as a result was nervous about changing clothes.
“I think we forgot about how she would feel because that’s all she’s known for three years, and to suddenly go to sleep, wake up and it’s gone,” Kelly said.
“But she has been able to adapt, and now there is a feeling of relief amongst friends and family. We’ve gone from issues with her breathing when she could have been paralysed or undergone multiple spinal surgeries, to doing what every normal parent has to worry about."
Naturally, Laurel’s homecoming was made special by the family clubbing together, with Kelly’s brother Lee Wiseman having worked with a team to create a back garden for the “active, outdoorsy” toddler.
Wiseman said it was the “most satisfying job” he had done.
“There’s rarely been a homecoming like it,” he said.
While Kelly was pregnant with Lauren there had been fortnightly scans to check on her progress. At two points the parents were offered a termination, having been told their unborn baby would not survive birth as the exomphalos had expanded.
But Laurel's parents decided to give her a chance and the tot defied medics’ predictions when she was born at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge in June 2018.
Most babies with the condition have the organs reinserted into their body at birth, but due to the unusually large size of Laurel's exomphalos, doctors warned she wouldn't be able to have them internalised until she is three years old.
Laurel was later diagnosed with congenital scoliosis and a spinal deformity, as well as a hole in her heart.
But following the operation, the tot is doing well. Despite being told she’d need to spend six to eight weeks in hospital, she was home within just one, with her parents having to tell the “daredevil” child to calm down so as to let herself recover.
Laurel is now preparing to attend pre-school for the first time this September before making the step up to primary school next year.
“I think that’s going to be a big milestone for her,” Kelly said. “I feel a lot freer and for her, I want her to now be able to do more things independently, like playing with friends.”
