A mother is pleading for donations on GoFundMe so she can send her eight-month-old son to the US for treatment that will save his life after the NHS ruled out more surgery on her baby.
The mother, Precious McDonagh, said that she needs to raise £1 million for her baby’s treatment. It is the last hope she has to give her baby Joseph a normal life.
So far, over £72,000 has been raised.
NHS rules out more surgery on Joseph
While 16 weeks into her pregnancy, Precious was told that her child would be born with a rare heart condition.
“At first, they thought he had Down’s syndrome, so I had all the scans done,” she said. Once she received the results, they came back clear for chromosome syndromes such as Down’s, Edwards’ and Patau’s.
Just a week later, however, she was informed that his condition was more complicated than it seemed.
“They threw termination at me a lot,” she said. “I was walking into scans with a bump, six months pregnant and they were still saying ‘you’ve got enough time’ if you want to go the other way.”
Precious, however, never throughout about terminating her baby, stating: “Whatever God gives you is a blessing, so I went through with it.”
Joseph was born on December 24 last year with pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect and major aortopulmonary collateral arteries.
Due to his condition, Joseph’s valve between the heart and lungs is not fully developed. Blood cannot flow from the heart to the lungs. Without treatment, a newborn cannot live long.
‘We haven’t lived a life like a normal family’
Joseph was supposed to undergo surgery at five weeks old. His surgery was cancelled and it was not until last month that they attempted a staged repair of his heart.
Unfortunately, the surgery was unsuccessful and the NHS are not willing to risk another operation on Joseph. Palliative care is now the only thing they will promise the unwell child.
“We haven’t been home. We haven’t lived a life like a normal family,” Precious said. “Being in the hospital eight months day in, day out – you’re living the same day every day.”
“The doctors are saying my little boy’s prognosis is poor – they say he’ll never go to school.”
Precious’ goal is to send Joseph to the US to save his life. She needs to raise £1 million to be able to afford the potentially life-saving surgery.
“I have never and will never see so much money in my life but for your child, you would do everything,” she said.
“I know it will be around 1.9 million dollars, if that’s £1 from everyone or 1.9 million people we’d get there, I won’t bring baby Joseph home with nothing he [fought] in my womb and he still fights today.”
You can donate to Joseph’s GoFundMe page here.
Read more: Family of baby girl diagnosed with rare leukaemia in race against time to raise £1m to save her life
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