A BRAVE baby is celebrating his first birthday at home today after spending a mammoth 320 days fighting for life in hospital.
River Stephen Camile Mbunzama was born with two holes in his heart and rare condition Tracheobronchomalacia – where the windpipe tissue is unusually soft and weak.
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Mum Roseann Singleton, 29, revealed her son has battled through 22 separate surgeries and arduous stints in the intensive care units at the Royal Hospital for Children (RHC) in Glasgow.
Heartbreaking pictures show the stricken lad wired up to numerous tubes in his hospital bed with a little cuddly rabbit resting on his head.
But the lad, from Helensburgh, Argyll, has defied the odds to spend the milestone day with Roseann and dad Rudy.
The overjoyed mum said: “We’re experiencing all the firsts that a mum would with a newborn – it all feels so strange.
“We have noticed a huge leap in River’s development in the short time that he has been home already.
“He has a long journey ahead of him but at the end of the day – after all the trauma, pain, tears, stress and heartbreak we endured – we finally get to have our boy home with us, where he belongs.
“We can’t thank all the teams at the hospital enough for everything they have done for us and River.”
River was born in the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley on August 26, 2023 but within hours developed issues with breathing and feeding.
He was transferred to the specialist RHC where he spent 11 months in the hospital including multiple months in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and paediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
He has had eight airway scopes, three airway surgeries, one supraglottoplasty, airway granulation removal, a thyroid lamina graft, peg surgery, jej surgery, peg-j surgery, division of anterior tongue tie and four laparotomies including dead bowel removal.
For parents Roseann and Rudy, the past year has felt like one step forward and ten steps back – until he was discharged home.
She said: “He only spent two days in NICU then got moved to the PICU on the 17th of January where he stayed for 12 days.
“Soon after, we had another positive milestone moment – we saw River without any respiratory support for the first time. “Seeing his full face again was beautiful.
“However, following this, he went on to have severe choking episodes and at one point stopped breathing in Rudy’s arms.
“A terrifying emergency intubation followed to save his life and he ended up back on a ventilator in PICU.”
River regained his core strength and head control with the help of the Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Team, which paved the way for his discharge.
