A baby boy has been left fighting for his life from a mystery illness as his parents frantically try avoid homelessness.
Natasha Salter, 27, and her partner David Reeves, 28, have been struggling to find somewhere to live for them, 16 month old Zachary, and two-year-old Eleanor.
Currently the family, from Exmouth, Devon, are staying in a double room Natasha's parents, but know they will need somewhere of their own as their son Zachary recovers from a serious illness which has left doctors baffled.
They found out just 10 weeks after Eleanor's birth they were expecting triplets, but sadly only Zachary survived into infancy, Devon Live reports.
But despite initially being a perfectly healthy baby boy, when he was six-months-old Zachary was hospitalised with Covid-19 - where doctors discovered a host of other problems.
Medics uncovered two problems with his heart, and his liver and spleen were double the size they should be.
He is in the midst of a ten-week hospital stay - his longest to date - and Natasha and David are frantically trying to keep their family together as they cope with his health issues.
Natasha said: “This has been one of the hardest years of our lives. It’s mentally and physically draining, and it’s really difficult when your family unit is split all the time.
“My partner and I take it in turns to be in hospital with Zachary. We do six week stints. It has made Eleanor clingy and anxious.
“It is really hard to plan anything or live life like a normal family.
“Before Zachary was born I thought I had lost one of the triplets, not two. He was born by caesarean on May 13, 2020, at 35 +5 weeks, weighing 5lbs 5ozs. He was taken away to do tests and we were told he was perfectly okay and that he was a healthy boy. We were so thankful.
“However, then his stats dropped and he went straight onto the neo-natal intensive care unit. He was not feeding, went really yellow and his oxygen levels were shockingly low.
“He was discharged within nine days and for the first six months of his life, the only signs that something wasn’t right was a slight heart murmur.
“Last October we were told he had two holes in his heart, but he seemed like a normal baby but just delayed which we put down to being born premature.”
Natasha admitted: “The doctors were baffled by what was going on - and they still are. There is something going on inside his body because he gets every infection you can think of, and they send his body into meltdown.
“It was an absolute blessing he caught Covid because if he didn’t, we would have thought his symptoms were just to do with coughs and colds because he does not look like a poorly child. He copes with it really well.”
Around the age of eight months old, Zachary suffered two massive hemorrhages and was blue-lighted to Bristol Hospital.
His parents were unable to travel with him due to close proximity to the amount of staff needed for his transfer so they had to travel behind and had been warned by paramedics that they did not know if he would make the journey.
Thankfully he did, and he remained in hospital for 16 days for further testing and to have blood transfusions.
Natasha said: “All the tests came back normal. They have tested him for rare things, have done scans and even tested his bones but they don’t show that there is any problem.”
Since then he has been diagnosed with a rare liver condition called nodular regenerative hyperplasia (NRH) which was putting pressure on his lungs and heart.
His latest hospital admission has lasted 10 weeks - his longest yet. The first six weeks were spent at the RD&E where he nearly died twice, and had to be ventilated.
Natasha recalled: “He had fluid around all his organs. The doctors told us it was a life or death situation, and only one person was allowed to be with him due to Covid-19 and social distancing. It made it really hard to nearly lose your child all by yourself. It was heartbreaking.
“They did more blood tests again and they were able to bring the fluid down but he would then have another reaction such as losing salts and proteins in his body, so everything began to stop working in his body."
Doctors hope Zachary will be able to return home in the coming week, but Natasha and David face an uncertain future and are desperately looking to leave her parent's home.
Natasha said: “We have now been told his brain is not functioning as it should be and he has started to lose his sight. It seems like it’s one step forward and 15 steps back.
“However, it explains why at 16 months old he is not crawling, walking or talking. He just sits and plays,
“He is getting worse and worse with every illness, and we still don’t know what is causing it. A doctor somewhere has to know why?”
When Zachary and David, a self-employed bricklayer, do return home, it means the family of four will be sharing one room until they can find a home to move into.
DDC has offered the family temporary accommodation, but Natasha says due to her son's health needs they need a long-term solution because they can't cope with the stress of keep moving on top of everything else.
Natasha said: “Top doctors have written to the council saying that when Zachary comes home he needs his own home for his rehabilitation.
“I have begged the council for housing. I’m lucky I have my mum and dad, but a double bedroom isn’t big enough for the four of us.
"It sounds really selfish of me but our family is in quite dire need at the moment. It's a bidding system and I'm in position 70 out of 150 in Band D, so 69 people have to say no to the property before we even get to look at it which is quite stressful.
"I understand that other people are in need as well but I also know people who have just been given a house and they're not in temporary accommodation."
“The private sector is ridiculous. I have gone after I don’t know how many properties. Of those, 90 per cent don’t reply or are fully booked with viewings within five minutes of the post being put up.
“I had a viewing on Monday, and was one of 14 people who went to see it. The landlady had to cap it at the number as she had so much interest, and we didn’t get it.
“I also had a viewing yesterday but I was warned the first person who showed them a cash deposit would get it. We can’t do that.
“It’s so difficult to find somewhere when you are not in a position to buy. I think the council could be doing more."
A spokesperson for EDDC said: “We are unable to discuss individual cases for data protection reasons. We can though confirm that, as with all social housing providers, we have a waiting list for all sizes of property via Devon Home Choice.
"Due to recent unprecedented events we also have a higher number of families than is usual in temporary accommodation waiting for a suitable property to become available.”
