Joshua was born in April 1993. We had been told after he was scanned at 10 weeks that there was a problem. It turned out he had a very large Exomphalos. He was delivered normally after a long labour at UCH and taken to Queen Elizabeth's Hospital for Children in Hackney where he was to spend the next 10 weeks.

Because of the size of the Exomphalos it was decided that it would be suspended from the top of his incubator.

With the help of gravity and a little persuasion from his surgeon it was gently eased into the abdominal space over the course of 3 weeks.

During this time he was feed via TPN and a long line inserted into his arm. Generally speaking, he made steady progress though there was always the worry about him contracting an infection

It was a great day when his surgeon done the final closure. The only downside was that efforts to make him a belly button were unsuccessful because the wound became infected. So far we have had no problems with his stomach and he lives a full and active little boys life.

Joshua(R) with brother Jacob