The boy who has beaten all the odds

HE was born with his intestines on the outside of his body, has battled meningitis, scarlet fever and major internal bleeding - but remarkably three-year-old Daniel Royall-Smith is a picture of health.

At one point the toddler was so ill his parents, Anna and Derek, were living “hour to hour”, not knowing if their son was going to survive.

But against the odds Daniel, who has also fought septicaemia and killer superbug rotavirus, is like any happy-go-lucky little boy.

Mr Smith and Mrs Royall-Smith are now gearing up to run the New York marathon in a bid to thank the hospital staff who helped save their son‘s life.

The family’s nightmare began just 16-weeks into Mrs Royall-Smith’s pregnancy when a scan confirmed her unborn child had gastroschitis.

It is a rare condition - affecting just one in 7,000 births - in which a malformation of the umbilical cord allows some of the organs to escape through a hole in the stomach and grow outside the body.

As a result, at birth his intestines were placed in a bag and hung up in the incubator above him for 10 days to allow them to gently fall back into his body.

Mrs Royal-Smith, 32, who is now planning to run the New York marathon to thank the hospital staff who helped save him, said: “It was a bit of a shock when we first found out and there was a lot of uncertainty with it because they can’t tell you how many organs are outside the body, the organs could be damaged, and the hole could heal up and kill off the organs.

“It was quite stressful. We were offered if we wanted to keep it [the baby] or not but we read up about it and decided just to go for it.

“Daniel is now a healthy little boy and full of life.”
 
The tot was delivered by caeserean section at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital a month early, weighing 6lb 73/4oz, but it was a further two weeks before his mother got to hold him.

Immediately after birth, he was whisked away and a hole, big enough to allow his organs, which were hung up, to fall back into his body, was cut in his stomach.

Daniel endured a two-hour operation when he was 10 days old to complete the procedure and was tube fed for nearly three weeks.

He spent a month in intensive care before he was allowed home with his parents after making a full recovery.

Just 18 months later, however, the tot was back in the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital fighting for life when he was struck down with meningitis.

The family, from Aberdeen, had recently moved out to Dubai and had returned home to Scotland for a wedding.

But during the celebrations, Mrs Royall-Smith received a call from her mother saying Daniel had taken ill.

She said: “We arrived back that afternoon and he perked up a bit because we had come home. But as the day went on he began to get pretty lethargic.

“I had him in my arms and he eyes just started to roll back in his head.

“He was so hot I could feel the heat radiating from him.”

After a call to NHS 24, she was advised to take Daniel to the hospital but that night he was still showing no signs of meningitis.

Mrs Royall-Smith said: “He was kept in the observation ward and he just got worse. Then at 6am the next morning the doctor came in to do her rounds and she just looked over at him and knew straight away what was wrong.”

A lumbar puncture soon confirmed he had pnemonnicocal meningitis.

Daniel was immediately admitted to the high dependency ward, put on a drip and given antibiotics.

Mrs Royall-Smith, said: “He went into a state of unconsciousness for four or five days.

“He started to come round about day six. But then his blood count dropped and he had a massive internal bleed and septecaemia in the intestine.

“We were told that an hour later of the diagnosis and he probably would have died.”

Daniel lost so much blood he needed two blood transfusions.

Mrs Royall-Smith , a temporary operations coordinator, said her son, who was just two at the time, was so frail that he looked like a “corpse”.

The couple had only left their son’s bedside for a short time to spend time with their daughter Christina, now 16-months, when he suffered the internal bleeding

Mrs Royall-Smith, said: “It was totally unexpected.

“I took the dummy out of his mouth and his lips were just gray. He just looked like a corpse. There was no colour about him at all.

“We were back to being on tender hooks again.”

She added: “I thought I was overreacting as a mother when I brought him into the hospital with a temperature. I always associated meningitis was a rash.

“But when we took him in at night time they still didn’t know what it was.

“He was in hospital when the symptoms came on and that’s what saved his life really.”

Daniel spent the next three weeks in isolation, before he was finally well enough to go home.

The family, who regularly return to visit family in Aberdeen, faced further anguish in January when Daniel was struck down with killer super bug rotavirus and scarlet fever in Dubai.

Against the odds, however, he is now like any lively little boy as he attends nursery and runs around playing football.

Mrs Royall-Smith, who with her husband Mr Smith still own a property in Aberdeen, said: “It’s unbelievable. It’s like it didn’t really happen. He’s now a healthy little boy.

“When he was really sick we were taking every hour at a time for about six days.

“But I never thought this could be it. I never thought he was close to passing. The thought just never entered our heads. We just kept pushing on. ”

Mr Smith, a 36-year-old sales director and former Peterhead and Keith football club player, said: “He has been very lucky. He is a healthy, happy boy and there is no stopping him now.

“When he lost so much blood and needed a second blood transfusion that’s when I was really shaking.

“But the doctors and the nursing staff were just tremendous.”

Now to thank the hospital staff who helped save his life, they are gearing up to run the New York marathon in aid of the Archie Foundation, the charity which raises money for the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, where he was treated.

They hope to raise £10,000 for the