A boy has defied medics who said he wouldn't live beyond two weeks by celebrating his 20th birthday.
Khalid suffered kidney failure while in the womb but his loving mother Ann refused to listen to doctors at two separate hospitals who said he would die if she left the ward with him.
Days after his birth, the mother-of-four from Surrey says she pleaded with staff to let her breastfed the infant from home.
When they finally allowed her, she watched in relief as his kidney function leapt from 6% functionality to a more stable 50%.
Although, the 50-year-old claims that doctors called her “belligerent” for insisting on leaving with her child - she believes that she she had to be a “lion” in order to save her son.
When Anne went into labour, she was admitted to St Peter’s Hospital in Surrey and gave birth to her boy who was quickly taken by medical staff.
Anne said: “The minute I had given birth, the people [who specialise] in kidneys came and tried to take my child.
"For some reason I had a strange feeling that I had to follow my son. I got up from my birthing bed and said, ‘you're not taking my son without me.’ I followed them.”
Anne says she overheard as hospital staff gave her son a “death sentence” as she walked behind them listening while they failed to notice.
She said: “The [doctor] was looking and saying, ‘I don't think this child will live more than two weeks. He didn’t even say it to my face. He was talking to the nurse and he didn't even bother to sit me down. I had just given birth and I'm standing there with a wad of cotton wool between my legs and they had no care.”
The mum says she felt a “suffocating” feeling and had to hold onto walls after overhearing to the gut-wrenching prognosis.
She said: “When you're told your child is going to die, this horrible fear sets in. It's like a suffocating thing. You feel like you're choking or you're drowning. You can't breathe so every time you try to be strong but when you walk out it's like you have to hold on to walls to keep yourself upright.
“It’s a toxic feeling when no one comes to you or speaks to you and tries to help you.”
Anne claims she was not given any food or formula by hospital staff until the third day of her stay at St Peter's, as she struggled to produce milk after giving birth.
She said: “My child was trying to feed from me and I wasn't producing enough milk. I was trying to feed this teeny little baby who has issues with his kidneys. Normally they would give you some type of formula and give the baby. I got nothing at St Peter’s.”
After a week, Anne and Khalid were transferred to Guy’s hospital where she began to feel depressed and thought that remaining in the ward would worsen her mental state.
She said: “My heart told me, ‘I can't do this.’ I said, ‘If I'm feeling depressed, my child will feed from my depression. I cannot keep my child here, I have to go home.’"
Anne claims that her doctor at Guy’s Hospital wrote that she was a "belligerent parent" in her medical notes as she continued to insist on her release.
“I had to stand so strong on my own, I was shaking," she said.
"I had to take my baby home. They had a range of medications they wanted me to give him and they were like, ‘no, you won't be able to do this. You have to listen to us, you have to stay in this hospital.’
“I said, ‘look! How many times has a doctor come to see me? The doctor comes once a week. I can't stay here to be a decoration in the wards. I can do what these nurses are doing. Just tell me, teach me how to do this.’”
After four days, doctors agreed to let Anne take her son home and it wasn’t long before he began gaining weight.
She said: “I was breastfeeding at the time. I never gave my child anything but breastmilk, he put on weight, I was going back every single week and they were checking him.
"He was born with 6% kidney function and by the time I kept going back and forth to the hospital, it went up to 45 and 50%, and it's been stable around there ever since.
“He's never needed anything else.”
As Khalid’s health improved, Anne says he has grown into an intelligent young man.
But she says she had to “stand” up for her son for him to be where he is today.
“I had to be the one standing in the back and I had to shout," she said.
"I made sure I strengthened myself. I felt that if I wasn't that lion, my child would be devoured.”
A spokesperson for Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We’re delighted to hear that Anne’s son has celebrated his 20 th birthday, and if Anne would like to contact us directly, we can discuss any concerns she has about previous care and how we can best support her now.”
