‘It Will Cost Me £1.5 Million To Save My Son’s Life, I’ll Do Anything’: Desperate Mother’s Plea To Get Her One-year-old Heart Surgery In California Because ‘the NHS Doesn’t Have The Skill’

The mother of a one-year-old boy with a complex heart condition has been told that only a hospital in California can save his life, in a procedure that would cost £1.5 million.

Jasmin Roberts, from Wrexham, was told that her son, Ollie, ‘would be lucky to live until he was two’ after he was diagnosed with a rare congenital heart defect at two weeks old.

The 24-year-old became ‘completely inconsolable’ after the NHS said her son would be introduced to the palliative care team because hospitals here lacked the expertise to perform the operation.

Jasmin told the Daily Mail: ‘I felt completely blindsided. We had no preparation for it. We didn’t think this was at all going to happen. I was getting to a point (where) obviously I’ve had quite bad postpartum depression.

‘I was getting to a better point in that, and that completely derailed. I remember collapsing on the floor in a fit of tears. I was completely inconsolable. It was absolutely awful.’

In a desperate bid to raise over £1 million pounds to get her son the surgery he needs, the young parent is now selling her house and has moved back in with her mother to raise money for his life-saving operation in the US.

At two weeks old, Ollie was referred for a prolonged jaundice screening because he was ‘just a bit too yellow,’ said Jasmin.

When she took her baby to Wrexham Maelor Hospital, his oxygen saturation levels were recorded at 85 per cent.

Now, Ollie’s oxygen saturation levels are between 65 to 70 per cent. Healthy levels are considered to be between 98 and 100 per cent.

Jasmin said: ‘It all just happened really, really quick. Like it was one nurse in the room and suddenly I blinked and Ollie was being rushed to the paediatric intensive care unit… we didn’t even know what was going on.’

The hospital initially believed Ollie had either sepsis or a heart condition, but Jasmin didn’t think that he could have an issue with his heart because she had been tested for this while pregnant.

He was then treated for sepsis, meaning he couldn’t be fed milk. Jasmin said: ‘It was like pure, pure torture, watching him scream all night long, and I was pumping at the time, so it made me feel really useless.

‘I was so scared and then the next morning they did an echo on him and they said he definitely had a heart condition.’

Ollie was diagnosed with pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect and major aortopulmonary collateral arteries (PA-VSD MAPCAs), a condition that means his arteries are too small.

Regina Giblin, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘Pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect (VSD) is a serious heart condition present at birth that involves two main problems.

‘Pulmonary atresia is when the valve that normally allows blood to flow from the heart to the lungs (the pulmonary valve) is not properly formed, which causes a blockage of blood flow from the heart to the lungs.

‘A VSD is a hole between the two lower chambers of the heart (the ventricles). This hole allows blood to mix between the left and right sides of the heart.

‘Because of these issues, the baby’s body may not get enough oxygen-rich blood to be pumped around the body.

‘To survive, the baby often needs medicine to keep a temporary blood vessel (the ductus arteriosus) open and will usually require surgery to improve blood flow to the lungs and repair the heart.’

It is estimated that pulmonary atresia occurs in one in every 10,000 live births, while pulmonary artery and associated with a VSD occurs in between four and ten per 100,000 live births, according to ScienceDirect.

Three UK hospitals said they couldn’t operate on Ollie to enlarge his arteries because his case was too complex. Jasmin also sought advice from hospitals in Europe, but was told the same information.

She said the UK hospitals agreed that ‘if they were to operate with the sort of skill level they have, they’d just make it worse, that they may probably cause scarring that would block off any oxygen flow to his lungs’.

But the surgeon who ‘pioneered’ the complex surgery, known as pulmonary artery reconstruction, can operate on Ollie at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health in California – if Jasmin can raise enough funds.

She is selling her house and has moved back in with her mother in Wrexham to help pay for the operation.

Stanford Medicine Children’s Health has already drawn up a medical plan for Ollie after Jasmin found the hospital online through a support group.

She said in a Go Fund Me post: ‘Originally, we were fundraising for £3million to cover the full cost of Ollie’s life-saving surgery abroad. But after recent conversations with doctors, there’s a possibility that Alder Hey (Children’s Hospital) may be able to carry out the second stage of Ollie’s surgery here in the UK.

‘This is amazing news, because it means we can now focus on getting him to America for stage one, which is the most urgent part. That brings our fundraising goal down to £1.5million. Still a huge number, but now, it feels slightly more reachable.’

Six to nine months after Ollie’s arteries are enlarged, he would be ready to undergo a ‘full repair’ – after which Jasmin said her baby would ‘live a normal life’.

The one-year-old has a ‘massive hole in his heart as well’, which would be fixed as part of the surgery.

She said: ‘He’s my absolute world. He’s like my best friend. He’s attached to my side constantly. I don’t go anywhere without him.

‘He’s cheeky, he’s funny, he’s just amazing. And if you met him, you wouldn’t think he’s got the prognosis he’s got. He’s so strong.’

A Go Fund Me set up by Jasmin has so far raised more than £40,000.

Stanford Medicine Children’s Health declined to comment. NHS England did not respond to a request for comment.