Baby Born Without An Immune System Is Finally Allowed Home After Spending Three Months Living Inside A Germ-Free ‘bubble’ 10url.com

A baby who was born without an immune system and had to live in a ‘bubble’ can has finally returned home.

Tazmin and James Knight, both 28, were devastated when their son Milo was diagnosed with the rare disorder severe combined immunodeficiency at just two months old.

Unable to fight off even the mildest infection, the newborn spent months inside a sterile bubble in the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle – 150 miles from his family home in Hull.

Mr Knight, an electrician, gave his son a ‘completely new immune system’ when he selflessly donated his stem cells to Milo last August.

The now nine-month-old was finally strong enough to go home on November 17 and is set to be ‘spoiled rotten’ this Christmas.
SCID is caused by a genetic mutation, which means that immune cells known as white blood cells are either missing or malfunctioning, according to the NHS.

In the past, most affected babies did not survive beyond a year, but modern treatments can now either reduce the risk of infection or cure the condition completely.

Mrs Knight said: ‘If you’d told us back in the summer that Milo would be home for Christmas, I wouldn’t have believed you.

‘There were so many hurdles for us to face it was difficult to allow ourselves to hope – yet here we are.

‘This is the best present we could have ever hoped for. Milo is our superhero and we’re going to spoil him rotten this Christmas.’
Milo seemed healthy when we was born on February 20 but, around two months later, the youngster developed a cough.

Doctors initially thought it was a harmless bug that would clear up on its own. But the cough was still lingering a month later, with health visitors also noticing his weight gain had slowed.

Milo was also refusing to drink from his bottle, despite been a good feeder before.

His anxious parents rang the non-emergency NHS number 111 and were advised to take him to the Hull Royal Infirmary.

Doctors then performed a series of tests, thinking he could have anything from a chest infection to reflux. Three days later, medics broke the news that Milo had SCID.
‘Because it’s so rare, there are only two hospitals in the UK that could treat Milo – London’s Great Ormond Street or Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle,’ Mrs Knight said.

‘We were transferred right away to Newcastle, 150 miles from home, with no idea how long we’d be there.’
Milo was immediately admitted to the ‘bubble ward,’ which has individual high-tech sterile rooms that are designed to protect patients from infection.

‘We had one last kiss with him and had no idea when we’d be able to do that again. That was incredibly hard. I just broke down,’ Mrs Knight said.

‘You’re only allowed a set number of carers who can enter the room itself, so a lot of our family couldn’t physically touch Milo for months.

‘We had to wash all his clothes and toys every night, and disinfect everything. We washed our hands about three or four times, all the way up to the elbows, before being allowed in.

‘We could touch him but had to make sure he didn’t touch our faces. Worst of all, we couldn’t kiss him.’