Doctors only gave toddler a scan to 'put mum's mind at ease' - he was in emergency surgery hours later

Victoria Wall looked over at her newborn baby boy from her hospital bed, his chunky legs wriggling around in his brand new sleepsuit.

Flicking through his red book, she pulled out a piece of card shaped like a teddy bear. ’Head circumference: 38cm,’ it read, scribbled in black biro.

“Head circumference?” Victoria thought to herself. “I’d rather have known his length.”

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The new mum had no idea a baby’s head size was important and didn’t give the measurement another thought.

That was until six months later when she noticed her son Sebastian couldn’t sit up properly – leading to a potentially fatal diagnosis that would change both of their lives forever.

Victoria, 32, welcomed little Seb into the world two years ago. However, he was so distressed after the birth that doctors placed him onto a ventilator straight away.

An ultrasound scan at five-days-old revealed the tot had a cyst on his brain. Though Victoria was alarmed, she was reassured the growth was nothing to worry about.

Over the next few months, the mum, from Chorley, noticed small traits in her son’s behaviour that she not believe to be normal.

At six-months-old, Seb could not sit up without toppling over and was unable to eat solid foods. At nine-months-old, he suddenly became severely distressed and would not stop crying.

“I knew something was wrong,’ Victoria, who works as a journalist, told the Manchester Evening News.

Victoria and her husband Alex took Seb to see a pediatrician and was told the tot had an infection. They were given antibiotics which Seb responded to at first but they stopped working two days later.

As his distress continued, Victoria took Seb to an urgent care centre