by Jo Earle

A Kent dad has praised 63 hospital heroes who saved his three-week-old son from a life-threatening condition.

Michael Cockerham, from Hextable, said without scores of medical staff his son Phineas wouldn't be alive today.

Now he has recorded each and every lifesaver, nurse and doctor who tended to his weeks-old son.

Phineas, now two, was absolutely fine when he was first born but one late night in May 2010 it became clear to his wife Laura their baby wasn't feeding well.

The couple rushed Phineas to their local hospital, but the on-call GP told them not to worry and to go home.

However when they got home things continued to get worse.

Michael said: "Our instinct as parents told us to get another opinion. So we took him to Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford.

"The nurse there took one look at him and got onto the phone to paediatrics and told them she had a floppy baby. That was the beginning of the whole saga.

Phineas Cockerham gets specialist treatment in intensive care

"Phineas was there for 36 hours. Right from the moment he was admitted doctors were liaising with specialists from the Evelina Children's Hospital in London.

"It did look initially like it would be meningitis, but they didn't know exactly what was wrong with him.

"He had tubes in his hands and feet and his glucose levels were very low indeed."

But after being transferred to the ECH, Phineas’s condition gradually declined. His oxygen levels in his blood dropped significantly and he needed specialist intensive care and a machine to help him breathe.

At that point Michael asked to know the worst:

"I said to the doctor ‘look, be frank with me, is he going to die?’ "

"There was a pause until he said in a non-committal way he didn't think so. That for me personally that was my lowest point."

After a week at the Evelina Children's Hospital, Phineas finally made a full recovery thanks to the amount of hospital staff who worked on him.

The final diagnosis was Parechovirus.

Michael said: "What I've been told is it's quite a common virus but not commonly diagnosed. In a three-week-old baby with an immature immune system his body was basically shutting down as the virus was attacking him.

"My wife was extremely worried and I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried too. My wife did not leave Phin's bedside for a week.

"I had to try and support her, but also make sure I was there for my other sons too."

A week after his son was admitted with the life-threatening illness Michael, a professional photographer, wanted to do something to raise awareness of just how many staff looked after and cared for his son.

Michael said: "It was when my wife and I had a visit to the ward from three consultants when I thought how many people had they seen since they took him to hospital on the first night.

"That's when I thought I would photograph every clinical staff so I could highlight to others just how many people were involved in saving my son from death at the ECH and elsewhere.

Michael’s book of the photographs is now on sale, with all proceeds going to the Evelina Children's Hospital.

For more information visit:www.bluefilter.co.uk/phineasfriends