A miracle baby "medically impossible" was born with the heart on the wrong side and one lung

Frankie Shopland is an energy ball that climbs on furniture and runs in his garden.

Looking at him, it is hard to believe that this turbulent little boy of three years is a medical impossibility.

Because Frankie was born with a half empty body because of a missing lung and kidney – and a heart on the wrong side.

His chances of survival were so low that the doctors, stupefied, offered his mother, Amie Grant, a dismissal when they saw the black hole on Frankie's scan.

His condition is so rare that there is not even a name.

But Amie and her partner Kerry Shopland were determined to give their son a chance to live.

And three years later, after more than 800 days in the hospital and thanks to the surgeons' know-how, their half-empty boy is full of life.

"If the NHS was not here, my son would not be here," said Daddy Kerry, and Amie nods next to him. "It makes you cry. Frankie is technically half human, but for us, he is everything. "

Amie was delighted to learn that she was expecting her first baby in the fall of 2015 and she and Kerry, both 26 years old, were eagerly preparing for the new arrival. But things went terribly wrong with the badysis of the baby's 20 weeks.

The shocked sonograph came out halfway. "When that happened, I knew something was wrong," said Amie.

"We sat in another small room and waited for someone to come in. She told us, "The badysis shows that the baby has only one kidney and the heart is on the right side." They said that they had never seen anything like it.

"The next question was," Do you want a cancellation? "But we never even had the conversation." We just said both: "No." All we had thought was, "It's his choice."

"If his heart worked well and there was no sign of any other problem, give him a chance. And that's what we've done. "

Kerry adds, "We just knew that he was going to succeed. We knew that he was going to be a special baby. "

The couple, from South East London, was sent to St Thomas Hospital for a more detailed badysis at 23 weeks.

It is there that the doctors also began to suspect that the baby had only one lung.

The couple were told that they needed two exams a week and that Amie was hospitalized full time.

But at 26 weeks, she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a condition that causes high blood pressure, which means that the expectant mother has to rest for long periods of time. Three weeks later, in May 2016, the baby went into distress with a drop in her heart rate and the doctors decided to resort to an emergency caesarean section.

Frankie was born 10 weeks earlier than planned with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and was transported to the neonatal care unit.

It weighed just 1 lb. 13 oz. The couple named it after Frank Lampard, the hero of Kerry, a Chelsea fan.

Friend says, "It was said before my entry that he was in danger of dying. I just said, "No, he will not win." We did not show negativity. We did not speak negatively.

"It was Frankie's way, his journey, and if he did, he would make his own mark. We did not want to doubt him. "

The tot was placed on a fan but – at the time, a tortuous boy – surprised the doctors by pulling it and breathing unaided on the ninth day.

After a month, Frankie did not receive any support and received only a tiny amount of oxygen to help him cope with a single lung. Surprisingly, he was found fit enough to be released at the age of three months.

But in November 2016, after two months at home, Amie noticed that Frankie turned gray and was immediately sent back to St Thomas.

The doctors discovered that he was suffering from bronchiolitis – a viral infection of the respiratory tract – and pneumonia.

They worked to stabilize him and used a camera to further investigate his condition.

And they discovered that not only did he definitively have only one left lung, he also had narrow airways that had developed into the area where his other lung should be.

Although he was sent home at Christmas, it was all over.
Back at the hospital, his family was told that he was so bad that he should stay there.

Kerry and Amie had to move permanently to a Ronald McDonald House near the Evelina London Children's Hospital, where Frankie was being treated.

They still had to pay £ 1,000 a month in bills for their house, which meant Kerry had to stay as a delivery boy full time.

Then, in an already dramatic life, Amie discovered that she was pregnant with the couple's second baby, Delilah Rose, who is now two years old.

Frankie has since gone through two major operations costing about £ 5 million at Great Ormond Street – one to insert a plastic lung on his left side to serve as a scaffold to keep his organs in the right place.

And two weeks later, he underwent a new surgery to expand his airways, performed by a specialist from Boston.

After the operation, the tot must stay in the hospital for a year to regain his strength. Frankie returned home in December 2017 and managed to stay there for nine months before falling ill and ending up at the hospital.

In May, he was three years old and he was finally released this week.

He still can not speak because of the effect of the ventilation tubes on his vocal cords or his fluid intake – but the family hopes that it will improve as he grows up.

And although transplants to replace missing organs are not an option at the moment, this could become a possibility as medicine progresses.

The prognosis of the child is unknown, the doctors have not found the same case – Amie and Kerry therefore take every day the day ahead.

Meanwhile, Frankie enjoys being outside, going to the park, climbing, Peppa Pig, dancing and blowing bubbles.

Now, her parents, who have had a second daughter in Valencia for two months, hope to find out if there are other children on the planet like Frankie.

Kerry said, "We would like to know if there is another Frankie, or is he the only one? This is not diagnosed in this country, but who can say that there is not another one somewhere in the world? "

They praised the NHS and the Ronald McDonald House, which hosts critically ill children during their extended stays at the hospital. Amie adds, "Both allowed our family to stay together, which is wonderful."

Dr. Shelley Riphagen, a consultant in children's intensive care at Evelina London Children's Hospital, told us: "The health problems with which Frankie was born are rare. He is a very unique little boy and has undergone many complex operations and procedures to improve his condition.

"Many of Evelina London's teams have continued to care for him since his childhood.

"We are all very happy that Frankie is doing well and spending quality time at home with his family."

Sue Bennett, Ronald McDonald House Assistant Director, Evelina London, said, "We are very pleased that Frankie and his family were able to stay together while he was being treated.

"People badume that you go to the hospital, that you follow your treatment, and then you go home.

"But for many families, this is not the case. We like to think of ourselves as a home for families like Frankie's. "