At 34 weeks pregnant, Delilah’s mother had a scan which detected that in utero, Delilah had a prominent bowel loop. The sonographer suggested a specialist to learn more about the concerning findings of the scan. However, when Delilah’s mother attempted to seek more information regarding the bowel loop, she found there was complacency and disregard around the anomaly. The consultant and fetal medicine expert told Delilah’s mother that ‘there was nothing to worry about and that the baby was fine.’
At 39 weeks Delilah was born via planned c-section because she was breech. A special alert had been placed on Delilah to check that she ‘opened her bowels.’ She moved her bowels twice in the hospital, lifting the critical alert. However, by evening Delilah had started vomiting bright yellow emesis. Delilah’s mother was told that the emesis was mucous resulting from her c-section surgery and that it was ‘nothing to worry about.’ Delilah’s sickness continued through the night and throughout the following morning. Multiple nurses saw Delilah over this time and were continually reassuring that everything was ‘ok.’. Delilah was discharged the day after the c-section despite her continuous vomiting. The family’s midwives came the following day and witnessed Delilah’s deteriorating medical state. Again, they dismissed the emesis as mucous. The volume of emesis increased as time progressed and became frequent. Delilah’s mother contacted her midwives to come and reassess Delilah’s medical status. At this point, Delilah had lost 12% of her birth weight but was still labelled as a healthy baby. The next day, Delilah became unresponsive. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors immediately started working on her. Delilah required transfer to another nearby hospital in the middle of the night for a higher level of care Further tests showed that Delilah had Malrotation with Volvulus. At just 5 days old, she was rushed into theatre at 4am.
Delilah was treated in the hospital for 3 weeks after her surgery. It took time for her bowel to function after Ladd’s procedure. Delilah had a 720-degree twist of the small intestine which had lodged against her stomach. In a fortunate fate, her anatomy had maintained the blood supply to her intestine. After her surgery, Delilah struggled to have bowel movements and was constantly straining and grunting in discomfort. On Boxing Day, Delilah began projectile vomiting. She was taken to the hospital where she had a blue light transfer to the specialty children’s hospital once again. At this admission, it was discovered that Delilah had an intestinal obstruction. She was admitted to the hospital again for another week.
Currently, Delilah is still experiencing symptoms: she has two doses of laxative a day and a suppository every night. She is currently waiting for a biopsy on her bowel. Delilah’s mother shared that as a parent, it has been heartbreaking to watch her baby experience this traumatizing diagnosis- the lack of awareness in the UK around intestinal malrotation and volvulus has been a shock.