A mum has revealed her horror after her six-year-old daughter's stomach aches turned out to be a rare life-threatening genetic disease. Betty, who did not want to disclose her surname, received a call from her daughter Esmée school saying she needed to be picked up as she had a stomach ache, was vomiting and had blood in her urine.
Following an initial visit to their local hospital, a pharmacist advised Betty that she should call 999 and when paramedics arrived, they decided to take Esmée into hospital. But when she arrived at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, several tests including a urine sample were taken and revealed that Esmée's kidneys had failed.
She was then taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where she was sedated, ventilated and put on dialysis. Esmée was then diagnosed with a rare genetic disease called Atypical Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome (aHUS), a disease where antibodies can attack your cells. It can affect any organ in the body but in Esmée's case it attacked her kidneys but luckily, she was able to take a life-saving medication called Eculizumab.
