Plymouth mum's plea as chronically ill baby's arms swell to double their size

A mother from Plymouth has issued a plea to help fundraise for lifesaving treatment for her baby who has a lifelong condition.

Mel O’Connor is raising money for her eight-month-old's specialist treatment which will prevent her from becoming seriously ill.

Journey O’Connor was born with a lifelong condition caused by a fault in her lymphatic system meaning it’s impossible for her body to fight infection.

Journey is fighting an infection that has caused her arm to double in size so the family are urgently appealing for help to save her life.

When Mel was 16 weeks pregnant, doctors realised something was wrong when they noticed her baby had cysts under her arms during a 4D scan.

The condition was initially thought to be Hydrops Fetalis, which may cause fluid to gather around the heart, lungs and inside the baby's stomach and has a low survival rate.

Despite being advised by doctors to terminate the pregnancy, Mel believed that Journey would survive the pregnancy. She was referred to a genetics team in Exeter and was told she would need to give birth to Journey via C-section.

Mel said: "As time went on, it just got worse, the pregnancy was really scary the whole way through. I was told that I'd have to have a C-section because if I was to give birth to her naturally, there was a chance that I would lose my life.

“But the team at Derriford Hospital weren't sure whether they had the specialist equipment to look after her when she was born so I was sent to Bristol Hospital.

"I stayed there on a monitor for five days because there were other people who came in that needed emergency C-sections and after I gave birth to Journey, they took her away to do tests on her immediately.

“Thankfully, they found that all her organs were working fine, including her bladder which they were really concerned about."Over the past eight months, Journey has had to travel to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London every 12 weeks to see one of only two NHS specialists in the country who can provide treatment for her.

Something as minor as the common cold can have a serious effect on her.

Just before Christmas, she developed a serious case of common bacterial infection cellulitis in her arms and was rushed to hospital to be treated for sepsis.

Doctors are struggling to control the infection with antibiotics, so the family are now waiting for a major operation to help.

Mel said: "Journey's arm doubled in size and her skin was breaking so she had to be put on antibiotics.

"But she has so much excess skin on her arms that the antibiotics couldn't reach parts of her body that needed it.

"She spent her very first Christmas in hospital and now we are at Great Ormond Street waiting for her to have a big operation. It's been awful and so worrying for us.

"Journey is such a smiley little girl. You wouldn't even know there was something wrong with her, she's just brilliant. But she is in a lot of pain. The infection has made her arms so big that she struggles to even sit up, so she falls over a lot."

"We have been told that with her condition she is prone to getting cellulitis as much as six times a year," Mel explained.

"So we are wanting to get her to this private specialist in Birmingham as soon as possible to prevent her becoming this poorly again, it has been heartbreaking to see her like this.

"Unfortunately, it's not something the NHS is able to provide for us, so we're looking into it privately.

"We have been made aware that it is £180 per hour for the treatment that can be done to keep this under control, and this could be needed three times a week depending on what they say at her consultation - the consultation alone is £240.

"Journey's condition is incurable but we're hoping this can help prevent her from getting so poorly in the future."

Mel has set up a GoFundMe to help raise money for Journey's treatment and has already raised £1,352 of the £2,000 goal.