A MUM is thankful to have her 14-month-old baby with her after her terrible ordeal with a condition that means her organs are outside her body.

Little Evie Wilson’s condition meant she needed treating immediately after birth, but now she is walking and talking like a normal child her age.

When mum Lisa, from Colne, found out her unborn daughter at the 12-week scan had something wrong with her, she felt the world on her shoulders, especially because she had had a miscarriage seven years before.

Evie was born on March 18, 2020, days before the first lockdown started, with the rare condition called Exomphalos Major.

She endured a seven-hour operation at Leeds General Infirmary at just five days old and stayed in intensive care for four weeks.

Lisa said: “Not only as a family having to deal with the unknown of what was going to happen, we were placed in lockdown three days after she was born.

“This had a massive impact on us as my partner wasn’t allowed to even visit her.

“When I was pregnant they kept mentioning termination because they did not know the outcome, but after more scans didn’t show anything else abnormal, we knew we wanted to continue.”

Lisa describes being scared as she didn’t want to lose her daughter.

She said: “I was very upset because I had already suffered a miscarriage before and really wanted a baby.

“It’s been a difficult year and after I was discharged after five days, I had to drive from Colne to see her every day.

“Before I gave birth, I just thought I would never become a mum, or that she wouldn’t survive.”

Lisa had a Caesarian section, where she was cut from the navel down to get Evie out safely.

The baby’s’s condition worsened over the first four weeks and doctors performed a blood transfusion.

The mum said: “I had a breakdown that day and did not think I could cope, but the next day when I went to see her, it was like she was a new baby.”

Finally going home at five weeks old, Evie’s liver is still outside her body but with skin covering it. Another operation will take place when Evie turns four to put her liver back inside her body.

Lisa said: “Doctors said she would not be able to sit or stand until almost two, but she was sitting at six months and walking at 11.”