Heartbroken mum's vow to help others after baby girl's death

When Ami Boyd and her partner Mike made the heartbreaking walk with their six-week-old daughter to the hospital mortuary, they naturally wanted to protect her dignity while treasuring those final moments.

Just hours earlier, Flossie Bilboe had died after suffering a bleed on the brain caused by an undiagnosed rare genetic disorder called Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT).

"When we walked from ITU [Intensive Therapy Unit] to the snowdrop suite, which is where the mortuary is, we had to walk Flossie through the hospital," said Ami, 34, from Ormskirk in Lancashire.

"The snowdrop team did clear out the corridors at the time to make sure that there wasn't anybody from the public.

"But, at the time, I remember feeling like somebody could walk out at any moment and see her.

"I was trying to shield her from people seeing her dead."

As Flossie's second birthday approaches, Ami has vowed to make sure something positive comes out of her daughter's death, on 3 September 2024.

She has been inspired to fundraise for a privacy pram, which has an extended hood to allow babies to be transported around a hospital discreetly.

"It might sound like such a small thing, but when you are living through the worst moment of your life, those moments mean absolutely everything," she said.

Flossie arrived into the world on 26 July 2024 and was the picture of health.

"I've got a little boy as well and, out of both of them, she was actually the easiest one - no sickness, healthy pregnancy, lovely birth," she said.

"Up to six weeks, she was just a normal, chunky, happy baby."

But one evening, Flossie would not settle before she started to cry inconsolably.

"It was a different level of crying by that point," Ami said.

"It was like a screeching and I just knew, we needed to take her to A&E."

The parents rushed Flossie to Ormskirk District General Hospital where she was treated immediately by medics.

"They just worked for hours and hours and hours to try to get her stable," she said.

"It was literally as soon as we got to A&E, it just escalated.

"But as a mum, I think I just knew she was not going to make it."

Flossie was transferred to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool in the early hours of the following morning.

It was discovered that she had a bleed on the brain and the family were given the heartbreaking news that she would not survive.

Flossie died at the hospital a short time later.

HHT, which is also known as Osler-Weber-Rendu syndrome, can lead to persistent nosebleeds, anemia, and, if left unmanaged, life-threatening internal bleeding in organs like the brain, lungs, and liver.

People with HHT have some blood vessels that have not developed properly and sometimes cause bleeding, known as arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).

In Flossie's memory, her parents plan to raise funds to help those experiencing the most traumatic time of their lives.

Last year they raised more than £6,500 for Alder Hey Children's Hospital by completing a 5km (3.1 miles) run with 30 obstacles along the route.

On 26 July, a 30-strong team will be walking 21km (13.2 miles) from Ormskirk District General Hospital to Alder Hey Children's Hospital - the last journey that Flossie made alive.

The money raised will fund a privacy pram for Ormskirk District General Hospital and as well as a donation to North West and North Wales Paediatric Transport Service, who transferred Flossie between the hospitals.

"We've just decided that every year we need something good to come out of her birthday or her anniversary," said Ami.

"So if they're going to go through this horrendous journey, we'd just like to make that time a bit easier with fundraising for what the hospitals need."

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