Three years ago, Lyall Cookward’s parents were told he might need to be on a ventilator for life.
Now the battling youngster has defied all their expectations by breathing unaided, beginning to speak and taking his first steps with a walker.
The three-year-old, who his family have dubbed the “wonder boy”, can also eat normally.
His mum Steph Ward said: “This week is the anniversary of the closest he came to dying.
“Three years ago we were being told he might be ventilated for up to three years or potentially for life. Now he’s ventilator-free, starting to talk and walk, in a mainstream playgroup and starting mainstream school in 2014.”
Lyall, who has Down’s Syndrome, suffered heart failure soon after birth and needed a risky operation then, followed by more surgery in early 2010.
Later he was diagnosed with a rare lung condition and spent six months in intensive care. After returning home to Chapel Allerton, Leeds, he was expected to be on a ventilator long-term.
However he has come off the machine, though he relies on an opening in his windpipe to breathe and may in future have reconstructive surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Steph, her partner Sharron Cook and their older sons Dan and Max, have been delighted by Lyall’s improvement.
He has started attending Town Street Playgroup in Chapel Allerton and can now walk using a walker.
“That’s great because it puts him on the same level as the other kids,” Sharron said.
“He has a speaking valve which helps him vocalise and he can put three signs together to say ‘I love mummy’.”
Steph added: “We are starting to see things that we never thought we would see.
“Now we can believe he may walk independently, he will go to school.
“They are massive milestones and it’s quite incredible when you think of what he’s gone through.”
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