Michael was born on 16 august 1987 at 9.17am to Michelle and Roger. He was our first born and he came out crying so we knew all was well. 

How wrong could we have been?
Michael ended up going to Special Care Unit for babies; he had an infection on his chest and to many red blood cells. He had to have a blood transfusion then we were told that Michael was what you call floppy, his muscles weren’t very strong which at that time we weren’t that worried, we were just worried about him. He was put on a drip for fluids as he could not feed, but as time went on he got better. He came home at 3weeks and 1day old. Since then till the day he died we all had to put up with Drs telling us do this, do that. 

Michael grew up a happy little boy, loved playing football, always running around when he had the chance. He had to put up with going through lots of tests over the years but he bounced back as always.
We found out that he had kidney problems when he was 7years old but as always off he went doing his football. He had to start taking tablets from then on. Over the next few years he carried on like nothing was happening to him, it was his Dad and I and the family doing the worrying for him!

Then in 1998 his kidneys got worse so he ending up in hospital again but this time on dialysis. He had to be in there for 3 weeks, after that he came home and we did his dialysis 3 times a day. He was also put on the transplant list but until a kidney came along he had to have the dialysis. 

Then on the 2nd of November 1998 we had a call saying they had a kidney for him!!!
We packed his stuff and off we went. He had to have tests done to make sure he was well enough to go through the operation but we had to wait about 5 hours before they all came back o.k. Michael went off to the operating theatre and it was hard leaving him because we knew what he was about to go through. When he came back he looked dreadful but then again with what he just had done we couldn’t expect any thing else. He went through lots of things at that time but he came home just 11 days after! He looked great! He felt great! He still had to go to the hospital every 3weeks for blood tests and make sure all was well. 


Things started going wrong for him in year 2000. His kidney wasn’t working as well as it should have been. Then on the 27th of September that year he vomited for the first time which we thought was due to his Granddad dieing but it carried on and on up to 6 or 7 times a day till he had a big op in January 2004. We nearly lost him then, the Doctors at the hospital gave him the right amount of morphine for his body weight but didn’t consider that his kidney was not working as it should and therefore he overdosed. Part of Michael’s lung collapsed and he spent a week and a half in Intensive Care, but he pulled through. 

He suffered lots of pain in this tummy over the last 4years so his life went down hill going from a very active child to doing nothing just lying on his bed and watching TV or playing his PS2.

Then on the 26 April this year Michael became very unwell and we had to call an ambulance. They took him to hospital and they didn’t know what was wrong so more blood tests and other test were being done. He was in lots of pain. It’s not nice seeing your child go through what he was going through and what he been through! They finally got him sorted and took him to Intensive Care where he was now stable and out of pain but they still didn’t know what was going on, they said he was fine so we came home about 2am. 

We got back in to him at 9.30am on the 27th and he told us he was going for an emergency operation. Loads of doctors and nurses were flapping about in his room. We asked the doctors what was going on, the surgeon came in and told us that he needed to take a look inside Michael’s gut, but it didn’t look good. He told us it was possible he wouldn’t come back alive. That was the hardest thing, hearing that you may lose your child. 

We went and spoke to his Dr in another room and they told us what was going on. All his organs had started to pack up; it just didn’t look good at all. They asked us if we were going to tell Michael what might happen but how can you tell your child that he might die? We just couldn’t do it. They asked us to be brave for him and we said we would try. This was one of the hardest things we had to do, ever! We went back with him while they were getting every thing ready to take him, we told him we loved him very much he told us the same, We were then told it was time for him to go so we walked him to the operating theatre still trying to be brave but it just wasn’t happening. Again we told him we loved him while he was awake, we left him at 11am, and that was the last time we saw him without life support. 

We went out side and phoned all the family and friends to tell them what was going on and if they wanted to say bye to Michael get down to the hospital now. We were waiting outside smoking are self’s silly, waiting for any news and family to arrive. 

We went back up to the ward about 12.30pm. We were all just sat there not knowing what do say or do. Time went on and we asked our friend from the hospital if she could try and find out what was going on. She went off, and brought back this lady; didn’t know who she was, she told us that we had lost him. Not sure what happened from then on really.

We were told that his gut had died and there was nothing they could do. We asked where he was and she told he was coming back on life support so we could say our good byes. He came back at 1.30pm. All the family was there apart from his sisters and a couple of cousins. We didn’t want them there till we knew what was happening. 

Gem went and phoned a friend of ours and they went and got Michael’s sisters from school. When they turned up it was hard telling them that they were about to lose their brother. We were asked if we wanted a priest and was Michael a Christian. We are not church going people, but we were told they could christen him if we wanted it. So we had a priest in and had him christened. They were keeping him alive with drugs till his cousin turned up. They stopped the drugs about 2.15pm and he finally died at 2.30pm.

A lot more happened before and after Michael passed away, but we could write a whole book about that. What I have written here is just a small summery of his 17 years with us.