A mum who was told everything was fine with her infant son, demanded answers when his lips kept turning blue.
Liane Slawson said the first worrying sign came when her son Max Dwyer was just four days old and his lips looked blue. Assuming it was him holding his breath, Liane said he experienced a few more of these episodes as the week went on.
But when Max was 12-days old, the family called 111 when one of these episodes appeared to last longer than usual, and they were rushed to Chester Hospital. But upon their arrival Liane said Max was "navy blue" and doctors had to resuscitate him.
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The A&E nurse told the ECHO: "I thought he was in cardiac arrest, there was people everywhere working on him. He was treated for sepsis for a long time but all his bloods were coming back as normal so they went down the reflux route."
But as Max, now two, continued to have these episodes where he would stop breathing, mum Liane was "screaming out" for answers. She said: "I said they were seizures, he was turning his head and his eyes were fixated but they kept saying "try to relax mum".
"I was pulling the crash bell all the time, he was having 18 episodes a night and I was on my own, I was trying to apply oxygen myself it was an awful experience."
As Max, who was born on May 30, 2021, began to worsen, Liane and dad Kenny demanded to be transferred to Alder Hey. Eventually, young Max was sedated and transferred where an MRI scan showed a small lesion and he was treated for a brain infection.
Remaining in Alder Hey for six weeks, the day before they were due to return home to Chester, Max had another "episode" and it was confirmed they were seizures. Liane added: "It was a year of constant seizures, increasing his medication, being sick and not being able to leave the house."
When Liane was seven months pregnant with daughter Hallie, Max underwent an MRI scan and after two hours, they were told the devastating news he had a brain tumour as the lesion had "dramatically grown".
Liane said: "I just thought he was going to die. The neurologist said they'd never seen anything like it, it wasn't acting in the normal way. The biopsy came back as normal tissue."
At this point, young Max was having up to ten seizures a day and the decision was made to carry out surgery as he had "no quality of life". Liane added: "He was banging his head constantly. I was on the hospital bed about to be induced when they said we could go ahead with surgery.
"He went in on March 16 and had part of his right temporal lobe removed as well as the tumour and since then, he's been seizure free. He started nursery and from not leaving the house to now he's been fantastic, we couldn't be happier.
"He's like a new child. We have to wait and see if the rest of the rare tumour grows."
Liane is now urging other parents to trust their own instincts as she said: "I did doubt myself, I didn't want to be a know it all nurse but I knew something wasn't right. We demanded to come to Alder Hey, it's an amazing hospital.
"We are also so thankful to the Alder Hey Charity and the Thumbs Up Charlie charity which was set up after a young boy died from a brain tumour, they are sending away on holiday which is respite for us, they have been a great support."
The Alder Hey Charity can be found here and for more information about Thumbs up for Charlie, visit here. According to the Brain Tumour Research, common symptoms include seizures, dizziness and vomiting. More information can be found here.
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