The teenager living life to the full after survival battle in the womb

Told her unborn son had a one in 100 chance of survival Fiona Walton took a chance. Now he’s 16 and excelling at sport and school. Catherine Scott reports.
Fiona Walton and her son JoshFiona Walton and her son Josh
Fiona Walton and her son Josh

Today Joshua Walton is a strapping 16-year-old who runs for South Yorkshire. However, before he was even born he had to undergo four life-saving blood transfusions.

His mum, Fiona, was 30 weeks pregnant with Joshua when she was told by doctors her unborn child had just a one in 100 chance of survival and only then if he underwent the risky procedure immediately.

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Until that point, Fiona had never suspected anything was wrong with her pregnancy. Joshua was her second baby and although she felt rather large she wasn’t unduly worried, nor was her GP.

“After I’d been to the doctors one day I went to my parents’ house to collect my three-year-old, Ben,” she says. “I complained to my dad, a retired doctor who had run the Special Care Baby Unit at Sheffield’s Northern General, that I was too large.

“He decided to ask if I could be scanned at the hospital. Two days later while having the scan I heard the words you dread, ‘There is something wrong with your baby. Let me go and fetch the consultant’.”

Fiona and her mum were ushered into a consultant’s office and given the heartbreaking diagnosis.

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“I was asked if I wished to continue with the pregnancy. The doctors said the baby had a one in a 100 chance of survival. Not brilliant odds. He was waterlogged due to heart failure which was the result of severe anaemia.

“To save his life treatment had to start immediately and that meant they couldn’t wait for any test results. There just wasn’t time. He had about 24 hours to live. We were warned that if he survived he might be handicapped.”

For RE teacher and committed Christian Fiona, a termination wasn’t an option, although she admits to having moments of pure fear at the thought of coping with a disabled child.

“Everyone who knew my family started to pray,” says Fiona from Sheffield.

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“No-one knew the cause, so I was given a choice of do nothing or try something. The something was to give the baby blood transfusions in the womb. I chose to try the transfusions.

“The first one was a few hours after I’d discovered there was something wrong. The transfusions carried some risk of losing the baby.”

It turned out to be the right choice. Fiona had anti-Kell antibodies in her blood.

Such antibodies are very rare and could have developed after the birth of her first child without her knowing.

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Josh was eventually given four blood transfusions over two weeks, which involved eight inch needles being inserted through Fiona’s stomach to the umbilical cord, some fluid was also removed.

“I was given lots of steroid injections to try to develop his lungs and had lots of blood tests. I remember sitting in the hospital toilets and weeping a few times,” says Fiona.

“I knew I’d have a premature baby, so I asked for a tour of special care baby unit, so that I could see all the machinery before seeing my baby in amongst it. I asked the sex of the baby, so I could name him and bond. ‘If we were betting men we’d say female’ and he became Rebekah.

“When the test results came back I was handed a piece of paper with XY on! A boy, he became Joshua. Joshua means God saves. Perhaps unsurprisingly there were several Joshuas in special care.”

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Joshua had to be delivered at 30 weeks by emergency C-section after Fiona developed another set of antibodies which were attacking her unborn baby. He had another blood transfusion when he was born.

The tiny baby was on a ventilator in intensive care in the special care baby unit. He was fed through a tube and had to remain in hospital for another eight weeks.

“I was so relieved when he was born. I felt he was now in the hands of the doctors and they would do their very best for him. I stayed in hospital 10 days and then was discharged, but Josh had to stay in.

“It was so strange coming home without a baby.

“We had so much support from our church which really helped me. During those eight weeks we were cooked 70 meals. One a day by the members of my church! I look back on it as a time when I felt cared for.”

Joshua finally came home on his due date – May 11, 1997.

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Throughout those traumatic weeks, Fiona says her faith never wavered. As well as a teacher with more than 30 years experience, the 53-year-old is also a part-time adviser with the interdenominational charity, Christians and Sheffield Schools, established almost three decades ago.

“It is easy for me to say my faith wasn’t tested because of the positive outcome,” says Fiona who went on to adopt a third child, now 10, after doctors advised her not to get pregnant again. “I just wanted him to be able to walk, see, hear, have a normal life. He’d have been loved whatever, but I realise life could have been hard.”

Joshua has just celebrated his 16th birthday and has already achieved so much. He has run for Sheffield and South Yorkshire several times, is predicted 10 A or A*in his 12 GCSEs and has just won a physics scholarship to a private school.

“When he started running cross country I thought back to when he was born and his legs were so thin and frail,” says Fiona. “I still wonder sometimes. However, the only thing we wanted was for Josh to have a normal life, and he has already surpassed that.

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“I know not every story of this kind turns out so well, and my heart goes out to those who took a different decision or who had a different outcome.

“I took a risk and am so grateful mine and Josh’s story had a happy ending.”

Rare antibodies a risk to babies

The Kell blood group system was first discovered in 1946. It was named after a patient called Mrs. Kellacher. During her pregnancy doctors had discovered she was carrying anti-Kell antibodies which had resulted in hemolytic disease of her newborn child.

Since then further research into the condition has taken place and in the last 65 years, a total of 25 Kell antigens have been identified, which are found in different frequencies in different populations.

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While further research into what causes the antigens and how to prevent them occurring needs to be done, cases like that of Fiona Walton remain extremely rare with less than 10 per cent of the population having the antigen.