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Sarah Lumley Leonie Chao-Fong
Mum-of-5 saves her 7-week-old baby's life after GP dismisses his symptoms twice
Courtney Nixon, 27, grew increasingly worried after her son started vomiting after every feed and his breathing became laboured
A mother saved her seven-week-old baby’s life after a GP dismissed his symptoms twice, leaving the boy fighting for his life.
Mum-of-five Courtney Nixon, 27, from Fernwood, Nottingham, grew increasingly worried after her son, Colton Weir, started vomiting up every feed, his breathing became laboured and he developed a chesty cough.
She decided to take her son to their local GP after he had been unable to keep milk down for almost 48 hours.
But the pair were sent home after being told that there was nothing wrong with Colton, and that his breathing was just "normal" newborn breathing.
When he stopped feeding altogether the next day, Courtney returned to the GP surgery. She was told that the baby was just dehydrated, and to take him to a nearby hospital.
Upon arriving at Queens Medical Centre, a simple oxygen check showed his oxygen levels plummeting down into the 40s and he was diagnosed with bronchitis.
Seven-week-old Colton spent over 48 hours on oxygen in ICU, with doctors even discussing intubating and ventilating him.
Courtney said: “They told me at the hospital that if I had not taken him in when I did, he would not have made it through the afternoon. And it would have been registered as a cot death, because the GP had failed to pick up on what was wrong with him.
She said that within an hour of arriving at hospital, doctors had put him in ICU where he was put on high-pressure oxygen for three days.
Courtney, who has three other sons aged nine, five and two, as well as a four-year-old daughter, is urging GP surgeries to carry out oxygen tests on young children as a matter of course.
As a mum-of-five, she said she knew her baby’s symptoms “weren’t normal” and that something was wrong, and she called on other mothers not to be afraid “to push the doctors if you feel they're not right”.
By not listening to parents’ concerns, GPs were “putting children’s lives at risk”, she said, adding that seeing her baby son in a high-pressure oxygen machine had been “so horrible”.
A week after their ordeal began, the mum and child were finally able to return home and Colton is now breathing normally again.
But a frustrated Courtney has criticised her local GP surgery, Balderton Primary Care Centre, for allowing her son to end up in a critical condition.
She said: "I spoke to a senior doctor who said they would be making some changes and would make sure they had the right monitors to carry out oxygen tests on children.
"It sounds like they didn't even have the right equipment to have done so with Colton. Why should my son have been their guinea pig in order to make that happen?”
Balderton Primary Care Centre declined to comment when contacted
