The heartbreaking young family’s run to the hospital with a bloody child

In the time it took for a Taranaki couple to bathe their baby, their world was turned upside down.

Minutes later, Toby and Laura Leadbetter are giving their 11-month-old son Zephyr a bottle to calm their unusual grumpy mood. A quick check of his diaper saw him covered in blood and the family running to Taranaki Base Hospital earlier this month.

And while Zephyr returned home over the weekend, he returned to the hospital with an infection last night and the doctors today decided how serious it is.

Toby Leadbetter told the Herald until Sunday, April 5, the first day of daylight saving time, that his son had been happy, healthy, with such a contagious personality that he would take anyone’s pants off.

But while I was giving him a bath that nightHer normally naughty boy turned “really flat.”

“We thought maybe he was tired from daylight saving time, overtime. We bought him and gave him his bottle before bed, like we usually do, and then he started vomiting and defecating violently.”

Faced with the sudden escalation, Leadbetter called his dad, who is a doctor.

“And during that time, my wife, Laura, instinctively went to check the diaper and it was full of blood, and my dad said, ‘Take him straight to the hospital.'”

Due to Covid-19’s confinement restrictions, only his wife was able to go to Taranaki Base Hospital with Zephyr.

After conducting some initial tests, Zephyr seemed to come in handy.

He left, but an hour later he received a frantic phone call from his wife, saying his son was now bleeding profusely from his butt.

“Laura said ‘I think we are going to lose it’ and I hurried and fortunately I was allowed to enter the hospital.

“It was heartbreaking to see him so scared and terrified and that no one really knew what was going on. They couldn’t get anyone to scan him or do an ultrasound in New Plymouth until the morning, but they obviously made the right decision and scaled him to Waikato Hospital.”

While Zephyr and his wife were being airlifted, Leadbetter got into his car and drove down the “eerily quiet” roads to Hamilton.

When he got there, Zephyr had stabilized. They would soon discover that he had meckels, a birth defect where the excess umbilical cord pierces the intestine.

“That’s what he got, and he got really, really bad.”

However, once again, he was not allowed to enter the hospital to be with his son or to help his wife, “who hates blood.”

“There was blood all over the show. Just not being able to be in the hospital was torture, you just wanted to be there to hug them, support them and ease them.”

She said that her experience with her son brought home the severity of the confinement and, despite not having access to her family, she knew why it had to be done.

“I guess until it’s happening to you or a loved one, it may be something you don’t really take as seriously as you should.

“The first weekend I went out surfing and then I felt bad and I haven’t done it since then, but when I remember it, it’s like ‘what are you doing, they don’t ask you to do much.’

“Right now there are many people who are alone, people die alone, give birth alone, they just go through these situations where family and support and friends are needed, and it is at times when they need it the most.” and you can’t have it when everything sinks. “

Leadbetter said he was finally able to pick up his wife and son from Waikato Hospital on Saturday.

However, last night Zephyr was hospitalized again. This time with an infection.

“It is quite heartbreaking and terrifying.

“Last night I bought everything again, but I hope it is okay. They will do some tests and scans this morning.”

Leadbetter, who turns 32 tomorrow, now just hoped he could have the best birthday present of all: his son at home.