'I could never be more in love with somebody than this wee boy'
| Published date | 28 April 2021 |
The arrival of Logan came as a blessing to former jewellery trade manager Donna and her husband, who had tried for some time for a baby.
It wasn't until he was ninemonths-old that the couple began to worry something may be wrong with Logan. "Sometimes he would recognise people and other times he would ignore them," explained Donna.
"We took him for an initial investigation, as we thought his hearing or vision was off."
Suspecting he may have
cerebral palsy, paediatricians referred baby Logan to the neurology department at Yorkhill Children's Hospital.
"Soon after, he developed epilepsy. Nobody could explain why Logan was the way he was. He had seizures at a year old," continued Donna.
"They showed in different ways. He had lots of different movements we didn't realise were seizures. Also, he would just go and stare into space. That was him having 'absences' - a type of seizure. They got that under control with medication, and he kept really well.
"We were refer red to ophthalmology because we questioned his vision. He was registered blind at the age of two. His vision is very limited. His actual sight is okay, but it is how the signals are sent back to the brain."
Logan - who has a rare genetic disorder - was unable to sit
unaided and developmental strides, such as gaining strength in his legs, were milestones that went unmarked.
"We learned he was a much different wee child than we had planned," said Donna, whose considerations shifted from which colour of pushchair to buy, to what was the best wheelchair for her little boy's complex needs.
By the time he was three-anda-half, Logan's weight, at only 10 kilos, was a cause for concern. Feeding was taking longer and he was struggling increasingly with swallowing.
While undergoing tests at Wishaw General, Logan - who is non-verbal - contracted respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). He was ventilated and transferred to the intensive care unit at Yorkhill.
Donna recalled a "long threemonths of different treatments," within which Logan was ventilated four times.
"We thought we had lost him," his doting mum adds.
With the extreme risks associated with operating on such a poorly little boy, consultant neonatal and paediatrics surgeon, Graham
Haddock, decided to take a chance on Logan.
He was to undergo gastrostomy surgery...
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