First Scots Dialysis Birth Mum Wants To Take Baby Home

First Scots Dialysis Birth Mum Wants To Take Baby Home

Mar 1 2008 Exclusive by Natalie Walker

THE first Scot to give birth while on dialysis last night pleaded: "Let me have my baby home."

Kim Gibson's miracle tot was born with a rare bowel condition.

Medics say her two-bedroom home isn't big enough for all the specialist gear 14-month-old Ryan Kerr needs to survive.

But housing officials can't find the family a three bedroom house - despite looking for a year.

Mum-of-three Kim, 38, said: "Every time I have to kiss my baby boy goodbye I break down in tears.

"My wee boy has been through so much already and I just want him with me, where he should be."

She begged Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership to find them a home.

Ryan was born with short gut syndrome and has to be fed through a tube - spending 18 hours a day hooked up to a machine and drips.

He has had eight major operations since he was born three months premature. Medics fear he may soon need a bowel transplant.

Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow said he could go home to Dumfries five months ago.

But with no room for him at home, he has been living in Dumfries Royal Infirmary - where Kim goes three times a week for dialysis. She has been in kidney failure since her body rejected a donor organ three years ago.

Doctors told Kim she had a less than 0.1 per cent chance of falling pregnant when she and partner Stephen Kerr decided to try for a baby.

When she did conceive, she was told there was a 70 per cent chance of miscarriage.

Medics advised her to terminate the baby for health reasons.

The UK Renal Registry said Ryan's birth was "miraculous" and added: "It's phenomenally rare for women on dialysis to give birth."

Now, the couple are enduring more heartache.

Kim said: "We went through so much to keep Ryan that it just breaks our hearts to not have him home with us.

"He has been in the house a few times but only for an hour or so because he has to go back and get hooked up to his feeding machines.

"It is just so cruel that we can't have our boy with us.

"And we worry too. His illness can be life-threatening and we know if he was to get a bad infection or stop feeding, the worst could happen.

"So every day is precious."

Kim and Steven have been trained by how to change their son's feed and care for him.

They also look after Kim's nine-year-old daughter Maxine. Her elder son Calum is in the Army.

Steven, who is Kim's fulltime carer, said: "I don't think we are asking the impossible, just for a house with a little more space for Ryan and all his equipment and drugs.

"It's now exactly a year since we went on the list and for months have been told we are at the top of it. But we have yet to to be offered any house.

"We will live anywhere that is big enough for the doctors to let us have our son home."

A housing partnership spokeswoman said no one had skipped the couple in the queue.

She added: "We cannot begin to imagine how difficult this situation has been for this family and their frustrations are absolutely understandable.

"Very simply no properties became available in their restricted areas of choice.

"Our department will continue to liaise with them and will do everything possible to speed up their transfer once a house or flat is available."

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/03/01/first-scots-dialysis-birth-mum-wants-to-take-baby-home-86908-20336410/