Aiden was born at a healthy weight on his due date with his anomaly scan at twenty weeks showing no signs of health complications. Despite this, Aiden had many trips to QA for very little weight gain as a newborn, nose bleeds, coughing up blood and phynomia. 

Aidens poor weight gain was very concerning from the start, but experts believed this was due to a milk protein intolerance and was prescribed neocate. This seemed to help but he was still very short and narrow. He was also put under dietitian and I was told he had been diagnosed with failure to thrive due to not doubling his birth weight at six months. When a baby is diagnosed with failure to thrive they are supposed to have all their major organs checked for any underlying issues. But for Aiden this didnt happen and we went years without knowing he had an extremely rare and dangerous heart condition for years, called pulmonary veins stenosis. 

Aiden always seemed to get poorly easily and would have random nose bleeds and coughing up blood, that we never found the reason for before. He also developed phynomia when he was two, but we put that down to being his first snow back in March 2018. In his last year of preschool Aiden didnt appear to have grown at all and it was very difficult to try to get him to gain weight. 

Towards the end of the first lockdown Aiden became very lethargic and had little to no appetite. I took him to the childrens assessment unit and they discovered his liver was enlarged, he had phynomia in both lungs again and he was in heart failure. It was like I had just crashed into a brick wall at 80 miles an hour. He was such a happy child, kind and very intelligent. He was into everything and could start a chat with anyone. The air was knocked out of me. I couldnt undertand how this was all happening without any of us knowing for so long. Aiden was taken to ocean ward in Southampton where he had a CT scan and doctors gave us the devastating news. 

Doctors explained that there was no cure and little treatment to only prolong life. Aiden had a stent put in, july 2020 and that allowed us six more beautiful months with our little boy. In which he enjoyed being a big brother, days out at farms and zoos and science museums. He went to school and saw his 5th birthday. 

Aidens condition worsened rapidly after that and in december we sadly lost him. 

Since he passed away I've heard of many children who had a similar story to Aiden, where the diagnosis wasnt found until later and I remember a nurse telling me it was one of the only heart conditions they cant cure. So there are many heart condition that can be cured as long as they are discovered early enough. Failure to thrive is a typical sign of a child having a heart defect and our Aiden is proof that some children go overlooked. When a child is diagnosed with failure to thrive at six months they are meant to have all their vital organs checked. I didnt know about this until a doctor asked to see Aidens scans of his heart from when he was a baby, and I explained he never had them. She explained to me that it was protocol but not law and Aiden had slipped through that.

If we make it law we could save many children's lives in the future who without this law would go overlooked like Aiden.

Aiden loved superhero's and I know he would want to save other children like him.

https://www.make-a-wish.org.uk/wishes/wish-stories/aidens-astronaut-wish/