William was born on 19th October 2007 at Torbay Hospital at 27 weeks extremely premature by emergency cesarean and weighed 2 pound he was ventilated and taken directly to the neonatal intensive care unit at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth . He spent 4 months there and had many problems including Chronic lung disease, sepsis, patent ductus arteriole's, abdominal distension which required surgery at a later date, metabolic bone disease,hyperbilirubinaemia and cystic periventricular leucomalacia (brain damage) pulmonary hemorrhage which he suffered on re intubation. He had repeated major apnoeas and bradycardia due to bowel distension and developed respiratory acidosis. He had 7 blood transfusions while in Plymouth . He was then transferred to St Michaels Hospital in Bristol in January 2008 for surgery to remove a constriction in his small intestine he was given a colostomy and also had a hernia done.He recovered well and was transferred back to our local hospital in Torbay,he was feeding well and was off his oxygen having had no bradycardia or apnoea episodes.We were expecting him home after a few days. A couple of days of being in scbu and he became unwell and needed to be resuscitated and was put back on oxygen.There was no medical reason why this should have happened although we were informed the specialist milk William was having had been out of date by more than 7 months he had been having this milk for a few days before this was noticed it was not until they needed a new tin that it was picked up all other supplies in the pharmacy were also out of date. New milk was ordered and had arrived but because they were waiting for other medication it was held on to until the complete prescription was ready so William was given even more milk that was out The manufacturer said the milk should be fine but there was no guarantee on the nutritional content or the vitamin content had not been affected. We personally still think this caused Williams down turn but have no concrete evidence. A full investigation was undertaken apparently and we have a copy. William did eventually make a good recovery and was allowed home for the first time since he was born and that had been 5 and a half months ago. He continued to get better although his weight gain has always been a worry. We were referred to the Audiologist as William failed his hearing tet while in hospital and he was diagnosed with Auditory Neuropothy (profoundly deaf) We noticed William was not reaching developmental goals as he should and also that he was having spasms. His pediatrician eventually diagnosed Cerebral Palsy which affects all of William this was probably due to the brain damage he suffered in Derriford as we were warned. In August he went back up to Bristol to have a duct closed in his heart and recovered well. In October he had his colostomy reversed and that seems to have gone ok time will tell. In November William was re-admitted to Bristol PICU with RSV secondary to Rhabdomyolis he was ventilated and sedated for 2 and a half weeks he made a great recovery but had to come home on oxygen which he continued with 24 hours a day. He then became unwell again in April he was diagnosed with epilepsy he once again ended up in Bristol in Picu but made a great recovery after a week and a half he came home.. William was making great progress and his pead saw him on the 16th June and said he looked the best he had seen him. William passed away in his sleep at home on 21st June 2009 My little soldier is now playing with the angels. Williams huge smile will be always remembered and always missed x a very special angel xxx