When Liane Slawson's son was just four days old his lips looked like they'd turned blue. The mum assumed little Max Dwyer was holding his breath, but as the week went on it kept happening.
When Max was 12 days old she called 111 as one of the incidents lasted longer than usual. He was rushed to hospital where doctors resuscitate him when his lips became "navy blue".
Liane said: "I thought he was in cardiac arrest, there was people everywhere working on him. He was treated for sepsis for a long time but all his bloods were coming back as normal so they went down the reflux route."
But her baby continued to have these instances when he'd stop breathing and Liane, who is an A&E nurse, was screaming out for help. "I said they were seizures, he was turning his head and his eyes were fixated but they kept saying "try to relax mum," she said.
She continued: "I was pulling the crash bell all the time, he was having 18 episodes a night and I was on my own, I was trying to apply oxygen myself it was an awful experience."
As Max's condition worsened, Liane and dad Kenny demanded that their son be moved to Alder Hey. He was sedated and transferred to the hospital where they did an MRI scan which showed a small lesion and he was treated for a brain infection, the Liverpool Echo reports.
He stayed in the hospital for six weeks but the day before he was due to come home he had another episode, and this time it was confirmed he was having seizures. Liane added: "It was a year of constant seizures, increasing his medication, being sick and not being able to leave the house."
Seven months into her second pregnancy with her daughter, Max had another MRI scan and after two hours the family were told he had a brain tumour as the lesion had "dramatically grown". The mum said: "I just thought he was going to die. The neurologist said they'd never seen anything like it, it wasn't acting in the normal way. The biopsy came back as normal tissue."
At this point, young Max was having up to ten seizures a day and the decision was made to carry out surgery as he had "no quality of life". Liane added: "He was banging his head constantly. I was on the hospital bed about to be induced when they said we could go ahead with surgery.
He went in on March 16 and had part of his right temporal lobe removed as well as the tumour and since then, he's been seizure free. He started nursery and from not leaving the house to now he's been fantastic, we couldn't be happier.
"He's like a new child. We have to wait and see if the rest of the rare tumour grows."
Liane is now urging other parents to trust their own instincts as she said: "I did doubt myself, I didn't want to be a know it all nurse but I knew something wasn't right. We demanded to come to Alder Hey, it's an amazing hospital.
"We are also so thankful to the Alder Hey Charity and the Thumbs Up Charlie charity which was set up after a young boy died from a brain tumour, they are sending away on holiday which is respite for us, they have been a great support."
The Alder Hey Charity can be found here and for more information about Thumbs up for Charlie, visit here. According to the Brain Tumour Research, common symptoms include seizures, dizziness and vomiting. More information can be found here.
