A baby with a rare brain condition could have avoided undergoing invasive surgery if health professionals had recognised his condition earlier, according to his mum.

Oliver Cattermole, from Upnor, Rochester underwent a complicated six-hour operation in July which saw doctors remove part of his skull after he was diagnosed with sagittal craniosynostosis.

Without the surgery the two-year-old could have gone on to experience learning delays and debilitating migraines.

In those suffering with the condition the joint in the top of the head that runs between the bones of the skull from the front to the back has prematurely closed and as a result is putting pressure on the brain and keeping it from growing normally.

But Oliver’s mum Jessica feels the rare syndrome may have never been spotted at all if it was not for her insistence that something was very wrong.

Jessica, who has an older daughter Ivy, 3, said she noticed immediately that something was not right as soon as Oliver was born.

“When he was put in my arms I remember thinking ‘he has got a funny shaped head’ and that it was not right.

“It was quite elongated. I already had a daughter so I had seen what a nice-shaped head looked like.”

The 35-year-old said she raised her concerns when when two midwives came to do their checks when her new baby was five days old but she said they just laughed and told her all babies have strange-shaped heads at first because of squeezing through the birth canal.

Jessica, who had an emergency caesarian so Oliver had not gone through the birth canal, said she raised the issue again when Oliver had his six-week check but was told by the health visitor to give him a head massage to help “mould it into shape”.

A suggestion which horrified Jessica.

“It was his skull that was out of shape. How can you massage a skull into shape?”

At his eight-week check the doctor gave Jessica leaflets about flat head syndrome.

When Oliver went for a hernia operation at five months old Jessica once again broached the subject of her son’s head, this time to a paediatrician at Medway Maritime Hospital who asked her whether her son could make eye contact and looked at her when she walked into a room.

She said yes but insisted on seeing a head specialist so the doctor made a referral.

Whilst waiting for her next appointment Jessica said she saw a BBC 1 documentary called Click which featured a boy with sagittal craniosynostosis.

She immediately recognised it as the same as her son.

She was finally given the diagnosis after meeting with the head specialist just two months before Oliver’s first birthday and was referred to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for an operation.

She said she was also asked why she had not got him seen sooner.

“I was very emotional,” Jessica said, as she explained to the doctor that she had tried on numerous occasions but had been “fobbed off”.

She was told that had the condition been picked up earlier a much less invasive operation could have been carried out at six months old, where a small spring would have been inserted into his skull.

“He told me it was too late,” Jessica said.

Oliver would have to undergo a much more invasive procedure as a result of the delay which would mean removing part of his skull in a six-hour operation.

The primary school teacher was furious the opportunity had been missed when she had tried to highlight the problem for months.

“I knew from the day he was born and I had been constantly fobbed off.”

Finally booked in for the more complicated surgery, Jessica’s worries were far from over when the operation was twice cancelled, first because of a national blood shortage.

“Apparently in 95 per cent of cases the patient has to have a blood transfusion during the operation,” Jessica said.

The second time the family had built themselves up for the big day it was postponed due to a nurses strike.

“We started to worry that he was never going to have it done,” Jessica said.

Oliver eventually underwent the much-anticipated operation in July – three months after his second birthday.

Called total calvarial remodelling (CVR) it involved removing two-thirds of the front portion of the skull and re-shaping it.

“It’s not just a cosmetic issue, she said. “It was physically giving him pain. He had already started banging his head which was horrible as he couldn’t tell us what was wrong.”

Since the operation she says this has stopped.

“He could still have them,” she said. “But it’s expected they won’t be so intense.”

This month marks sagittal craniosynostosis awareness month and Jessica is keen to tell her story in the hope no one else has to suffer the delays she and Oliver faced in getting treatment.

And she would like to see posters of children with the condition in doctor’s surgery to raise awareness as it affects 1 in 2,500 babies.

“So many midwives and health visitors have no idea about this condition. So many mums tell stories the same as mine, saying they knew something was wrong and they were ignored.”

Alison Herron, director of midwifery at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, responded on behalf of Medway Maritime Hospital to Jessica’s experience.

She said: ”We sincerely apologise to Miss Corner for any anxiety and distress she may have experienced.

‘’We have fully investigated Miss Corner’s concerns and have shared the findings in full with her.

“As a result of this investigation, we have made changes to improve our midwifery training programme and have worked with our midwives to help them reflect on their own practices and to remain vigilant when examining babies.’’