Mum in Cornwall vows to keep fighting for newborn son

Jaxon Rowe, whose parents Courtney Rowe and Michael Snell live in Helston with their other two children, was born on October 13 with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome - a heart disease where the left ventricle of the heart, the main pumping chamber, is critically underdeveloped

Courtney told The Packet that when she went for her 20 week scan, she and the sonographer could only see three chambers in Jaxon's heart, as opposed to the usual four.

Courtney explained: "She was there for about 20 minutes scanning his heart, and I remember thinking 'hold on, I've had two kids and each time I've been to a scan there's normally four chambers when they scan the heart.

Courtney told The Packet she would continue fighting for Jaxon until there was nothing more she could do.

"We could only see three, and I was thinking 'she's going to tell me something's wrong.

"Two minutes later she said 'I'm sorry, there's something wrong with your baby's heart' and I just broke down at that point."

Unfortunately, doctors would discover further complications with Jaxon during Courtney's pregnancy that included an atrial septum defect, a large muscular ventricular septal defect, coarctation of the aorta, bilateral talipes, and a double outlet right ventricle.

After his birth, doctors also discovered a number of additional conditions affecting Jaxon that included hip dysplasia, a wedge-shaped vertebrae, partial scoliosis, uneven rib structure in which he only had ten ribs on the right side and nine ribs on his left side, a dysplastic kidney, an abdominal hernia and an under-formed arm growing out of his abdomen due to Fetus in Fetu syndrome.

Courtney continued: "At the moment it's very touch and go with Jaxon because he's just come off a heart and lung bypass, so we're taking it minute by minute.

Jaxon suffers from a string of complex health conditions

"He's stable at the minute, but his saturation are still very low, so he's only about 58 per cent oxygen and he's still on ventilation.

"We're at a very critical point, but the doctors are giving all the medication they can to help him.

"If it comes to a point where they feel they can't do anything more, they can't put him back on to the heart and lung bypass because he's had too much of a long run and it was causing complications in the end so we're at a crossroads now where we just have to see where he leads us.

"We were offered comfort care when they told us about all the other conditions they found after he was born, they offered us palliative care or we can go down the surgery route and offer him the best chance as parents.

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"I said I don't want palliative care, I want to continue the surgery, see how far he gets, and we'll go from there.

"When he starts suffering or when they say there's nothing more they can do, or he tells us it's time to give up, then that's fine, I'll do palliative care.

"But until I've finished fighting and done as much as I can, and until he's finished fighting, I don't want to speak about it."

Upon finding out the unfortunate news, one of the family's friends set up and a GoFundMe in order to help out with Courtney and Michael's finances during this difficult period, raising £2,843.

Jaxon's condition was initially discovered during Courtney's 20 week scan

Courtney went on to tell The Packet what this support meant to her and her family.

"It's overwhelming.

"I know there's kind people, but I didn't think there would be as many people, especially who you don't even know, that would be willing to give you the support to make sure that your kids can come up and see you, or that you can get to and from your kids.

"Being so far away from home is very expensive, especially in Bristol City, so its nice to have the backing of the community to just care.

"Just seeing how much people are willing to give is nice because it means we can get the kids up here more often.

"It's not just about them leaving money, people are also leaving really nice messages, it's really heartwarming.

"It's nice that people want to help, while we are up here, get the kids up for a couple of nights so we're able to spend some time with them, because obviously I'm in the hospital all the time.

After Jaxon's birth, doctors found additional health conditions.

"His dad's having to travel back to see the other kids as well as travel back for work, because obviously we don't have any money while we're here, we still have bills and stuff to pay at home as well as travel expenses and costs up here.

"It costs so much money."

"We have such a big community and so many people are willing to give, it really restores your faith in humanity."

If you would like to donate to Jaxon's fundraiser, visit: Jaxon's GoFundMe page