Devon baby Lottie returns home after liver transplant

A baby from Devon who was at the centre of a national appeal for a liver donor has been allowed to be taken home just weeks after surgery.

Doctors said Lottie Bryon-Edmond, from Torquay, was the youngest person ever to survive the transplant operation, carried out in August.

She had been top of the UK's super-urgent transplant list for 14 days.

Her parents said it was "magical" that she was home and they hoped her story would increase organ donations.

'Extreme emotions'

Lottie, who is just under three months old, needed the transplant after developing the rare condition neonatal haemochromatosis, which meant toxic levels of iron built up in her liver.

She was five weeks old when she underwent a seven-hour operation at Birmingham Children's Hospital after being examined by doctors in Torquay, Exeter, Bristol and Birmingham.

Doctors said she could have died at any time before the procedure.

She is now home and her father, Chris Bryon-Edmond, said the family had been through an "extreme range of emotions".

He said: "She was wheeled away just 10 minutes after she was delivered in an emergency Caesarian section.

Image caption, Lottie's parents have made a scrapbook of what has happened to her

"I had a stare from her of: "Help, daddy," and I couldn't. That was hard."

Her operation and return home "changed us 150,000%," he added.

He said: "If she had just come home after a couple of days, I'd have gone back into usual routines.

"This is a very different life that we've got now. My priorities have changed radically. Frankly, they are her and my life."

Lottie's mother, Julie Bryon-Edmond, said: "It's made us closer, and look what we've got at the end of it. It's just brilliant.

"I've lost interest in my shoes and materialistic things. What's important is people loving each other and caring about each other."

She added: "She's got the biggest scrap book that any child has.

"She'll know everything that's happened. She can be proud of herself and the fact that she's raised awareness".

Both parents said they hoped more people would sign up to the organ donor register because of Lottie's procedure.

Mr Bryon-Edmond said: "There is no choice - you carry one, end of story."

Mrs Bryon-Edmond said: "Anyone who thinks they should receive an organ should be willing to give one."