A mum has described the moment her baby son smiled when he saw her for the first time after having severe cataracts removed from his eyes.
Rachael Fleming, 38, from Ellesmere Port, said son Leonard Walls, now 13 months, needed three operations at Alder Hey Children's Hospital to replace the cloudy lenses inside his eyes, with the last operation taking place in December 2022.
In January, he received his first pair of "grown up" glasses, allowing him to see his mum and older sister Liliana, two, clearly for the first time, reported the Liverpool Echo.
Rachel had thought six-month-old Leonard was suffering from reflux when she took him to Macclesfield A&E in July last year - but doctors suspected the problem was far more serious.
"We didn't have any idea something was wrong until Macclesfield told us it wasn't reflux, it was infantile spasms. He would round his shoulders and pull his knees up and he would scream. It looks like reflux, but it was coming in clusters. So doctors said he needed to go to Alder Hey to have a brain scan," said Rachel.
She took her son to the West Derby hospital, where doctors noticed white specks in Leonard's eyes - and delivered the bombshell news.
Rachael said: "Within minutes of the doctor having a look at Leonard, he said 'these are cataracts'. I was obviously very shocked and confused. There was such a lot to take in in such a short space of time. As far as I was concerned, he was a happy, healthy baby."
Cataracts are when the lens develops cloudy patches and can usually be treated with surgery.
"It got progressively worse. The actual white speck of the cataracts did get bigger, and his development kind of slowed down. He stopped making all the cues you would find in a baby, he stopped smiling, stopped laughing, he wasn't moving as much, so we did suspect there was something not right," said Rachel, who works on an offshore oil rig.
"It was horrible having to leave him. They got him to sleep with me holding him before they took him into theatre so they didn't have to put the cannula in while he was awake, and it was very scary. I think his first operation was two and a half hours, and it felt like a very long time to be away from him while you're sat there, waiting. It can feel very lonely when you're waiting for them to come out."
She added: "Now after three operations he's doing amazing. When he had his first pair of glasses, they said his prime vision was about 30cm. Now with his new pair, his prime vision is 60cm. He watches TV now, he takes in everything his sister's doing, he watches her play.
"It makes a big difference. He wasn't able to see before and without his glasses, I don't think he can see particularly far. But when you put his glasses on, the smile you see in the video is the smile we see every day.
"Leonard is under Chester Hospital for his neurology and Alder Hey for his ophthalmology. Both hospitals have been absolutely amazing, as well as Macclesfield A&E who picked up the initial problem areas. I can't fault them at all.
"They've all been amazing with him. Going through it, spending time there, going to appointments, they really have been invaluable in giving him his sight back. If no one had picked up on it in the first place, I don't know at what point we would have known."
