A baby born with her intestines on the outside her body, making doctors fear she risked a fatal tear, is set to celebrate her first birthday healthy this Thursday.
Little Lily-Rae Lawrence, from Sheffield, had her first operation at just four hours old and spent 150 days in hospital before being discharged in September 2018.
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Her doting parents Melissa Thompson and Richard Lawrence, 32 and 34 respectively, first discovered something was wrong during their 12-week scan after spotting what looked like a 'puff of smoke,' next to her tummy.
This turned out to be gastroschisis - a condition which caused her intestines to form through a hole in her stomach.
At the time it was feared pressure building up in the organ after the passageways began to narrow could lead to a rupture.
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But, after five months in hospital, Lily-Rae will celebrate her first birthday this Thursday and her parents have praised the doctors who helped their young daughter to overcome the potentially deadly condition.
Dad Richard, an electrical engineer, said: "The stomach was flat on the scan, but we could see something in the picture outside of her belly, her bowels were on the outside.
"It looked like a puff of smoke outside her belly, our initial thoughts were pure worry, you get yourself in a panic trying to get your head around it.
"It's like the plumbing under your sink, but instead of the pipes being under the sink they are outside."
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He continued: "When Lily-Rae was born they planned to put her bowels in a silo bag, which is a plastic bag raised above the belly and from there it takes several days for them to squeeze back into place.
"But it was not a normal case, it was very complicated and required more surgery.
"With Lily only having 17cm of bowel that eventually started working after a couple of days through the stoma, it was highly suspected that she would have short bowel syndrome.
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"This could have meant she would have been on a drip for up to as much as 21 hours a day and could have even spent a number of years in hospital - at worst would have eventually had to come home on TPN.
"But later after her third operation the surgeon was beaming at us, he sat us down and explained that her bowel had grown to more than 23cm and parts had untangled."
He praised his daughter for her bravery: "Everything that was thrown at her she came through fighting, she's made a perfect recovery with no concerns.
"She is so happy now and she keeps fighting, she's a lovely and placid baby."
Melissa delivered Lily-Rae over three weeks early after the little girl's intestines starting to dilate which could lead to blockages and rupturing.
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Surgeons hoped to reinsert her bowels after wrapping them in a cling film-like material and hoping gravity would naturally force them back inside her body. But due to the severity of the case more work was needed.
Of the 30cm of intestine outside of her body, doctors believed 17cm was alive. They were forced to remove the dead sections and create two stomas outside of her body.
After removing parts of the intestine that had died and turned black, they hoped the remaining sections would be able to survive on one blood vessel and regrow.
The parents feared if it did not work, she would contend with short gut syndrome meaning she would be on a total parental nutrition drip for up to 21 hours of every day and could spend years in hospital.
They had to wait eight weeks for a third operation to ensure the remaining small and large intestines, would untangle themselves.
Miraculously the intestine grew and other tangled sections that doctors had concerns about had survived.
Melissa confessed: "It was just heart breaking. We had no idea what would happen because her bowels did not look a good colour and we feared they were dead.
"We didn't hear anything for a while but held the hope that no news was good news, until someone came into to explain Lily's bowels were in a bad way.
"After two months they went back inside of Lily-Rae to see if any of the rest of the bowel that was matted together had survived and thankfully all of it had.
"They found roughly 85cm of small bowel that the 17cm had grown to 23cm, so we had 108cm of small intestine in total.
"Then the large intestine that was also in this clump had all survived too"
Lily-Rae was discharged after 149 days in hospital and is now living a normal life at home.
Delighted big sister Ruby, five, is savouring every moment with her little sister after waiting patiently to bond with her sibling.
Melissa said: "Some of those days in hospital were some of the worst of our lives and felt like the longest five months, it was heart-breaking watching her go through all of that.
"We are just thankful that she is home safe and doing well, her first birthday will be extra special knowing how far she has come along since then."
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