Mum refused for referral by GPs over tot’s ‘triangular’ head gets him life-saving surgery in nick of time after emailing pics to surgeons
First-time mum Sophie Murray received urgent appointment within 15 minutes of emailing pictures of 17-month-old Finley's head to top surgeons after doctors ignored concerns
A MUM claims GPs fobbed her off over her baby’s “triangular head” — until she discovered it was squashing his brain.
Sophie Murray, 22, said she repeatedly asked docs about Finley’s misshapen skull, but was treated as if she was worrying about nothing.
At 17 months she Googled his symptoms after watching him clutch his head in pain and found he had rare birth defect metopic craniosynostosis.
The defect causes the plates of the skull to fuse together in the womb – creating a triangular shape and ridge down the forehead as the baby grows.
If it goes unnoticed beyond 18 months, pressure on the brain can cause permanent damage.
First-time mum Sophie emailed pictures to a craniofacial surgeon at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
They responded within minutes to arrange an operation.
Days later Finley, who will be two in March, had surgery to break his skull and put it back together “like a jigsaw”.
Waitress Sophie, of Worthing, West Sussex, said: "As Finley got bigger and bigger his head got more and more triangular.
"He had a ridge that stuck out running down his forehead and a permanent vein down his nose that looked like a bruise.
"He was always getting viral infections, he wasn't reaching his milestones and it got to the point where every day he would be clutching his head and screaming from the pain.
"I tried to tell my GP and get them to give me a referral to a specialist but they kept fobbing me off. It's like they were looking at me as a young mum who was worrying about nothing.
"But within 15 minutes of me sending his pictures the specialist centres I heard back from a surgeon who booked Finley in for an appointment and CT scan a week later, and his surgery a week after that.
“I tried to get a referral, but the GP kept fobbing me off. Luckily I Googled it and the surgeons were really lovely.”
A spokesman for Sophie’s GP surgery in Worthing said: “We cannot comment on an individual case.”