THE family of a Newport baby who has never been able to eat are celebrating after doctors gave her the all-clear to come home.

Fifteen-month-old Georgia Diamond, of Maesglas, was born with gastroschisis, a condition where a child has a small hole in the front of the abdomen through which some of the intestine is protruding, resulting in her being unable to feed.

Since birth she was forced to make Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales her home, but now Georgia, who has had numerous operations to correct the dilated section of her gut, has been able to return home to her delighted family and mother Lisa James, 25.

Due to her condition, Georgia requires intravenous total parenteral nutrition (TPN) which means she is fed by a tube, as well as using omeprazole which reduces her stomach secretion, and will be for the rest of her life unless she undergoes a transplant. Doctors have told her that she must wait for two years until she is potentially able to have a intestine transplant at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, one of two hospitals in the world that provides this type of treatment.

Since coming home, Miss James has been told to expect the date of her referral there by spring, where doctors will assess whether she is eligible for the operation.

She said: “We are hoping to find a way to feed her as she needs to be tube fed. If we can do that then we can progress from there. We are hoping that it will be this month or next or in the spring at the latest but it just depends in what they find and as they will be doing lots of different tests and she may require and operation – we are going in completely blind.”

Miss James can’t praise the staff at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital enough, especially those on Ocean Ward, who have trained her to use all of the equipment required to keep Georgia at home.

“We were able to take her home on November 29 and spend her first Christmas at home,” Miss James added.

“It is lovely to have her home. At the moment we are going to weekly appointments at the Ocean Ward in Cardiff because if she catches a cold she will have to stay there. We will be receiving nursing care at home starting this month so that will be really helpful.”