Sprinting around the playground, her blonde curls bouncing, it’s hard to believe three-year-old Molly Young has ever been sick a day in her life. But just a few weeks after his birth, he was on the verge of death.

He was born two months early and weak in September 2021. He contracted a virus shortly after arriving home and was taken back to the hospital by ambulance when his parents noticed he was having trouble breathing.

Doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and, more worryingly, sepsis, a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body overreacts to an infection and damages tissues and organs.

Scans revealed his lungs were swollen and filled with fluid, meaning he was in danger of suffocation. He was put on a ventilator but this had little effect.

Molly with her mother Rose after completing her Evelina London Children’s Charity run

Baby Molly battles sepsis and pneumonia in hospital

Molly cheers on her mother and waves her flag in support of ELCH

Because her condition was critical, she was transferred to the specialist Evelina London Children’s Hospital, where doctors recommended a radical intervention.

Molly’s parents, Rose Abbott and Sam Young, from Walthamstow, east London, were told she would need a procedure called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which allows the body to breathe without using the lungs.

It involves removing blood from the body, removing carbon dioxide and adding fresh oxygen, and then returning it to the body.

This allows the organs to continue working. However, although it is effective in adults, this procedure is risky for children as it can cause stroke and other complications.

These are most likely to occur in newborns because their blood vessels are small and can be damaged easily.

But Evelina Hospital has pioneered a new approach to ECMO for children.

Normally, in children, blood is taken from the neck and given back. But experts say this increases the risk of blood clots traveling to the brain and causing a stroke. Instead, experts at Evelina recommended returning oxygenated blood through the leg.

Rose and Sam acquiesced as they had no other choice, but they were afraid Molly would never wake up.

‘We are devastated,’ says Rose, 39, a brand manager for a cosmetics company. ‘I knew if this didn’t work we would lose him because it was the only option left.’

Molly was on ECMO for 12 days, which gave doctors enough time to give her strong antibiotics and steroids to fight the lung infection and control the sepsis. While Molly’s leg was swollen due to the catheter placed in her groin, there were no dangerous side effects.

His condition improved rapidly and he began to breathe easily after being on a ventilator for two more days. He was discharged three months later.

‘Molly was incredibly ill and we needed to give her lungs a chance to rest and recover,’ explains Dr Jon Lillie, Evelina’s pediatric intensive care consultant.

‘He was the sickest patient in the hospital before they were put on ECMO, but he recovered very quickly afterwards.’

Evelina now teaches her technique to other children’s hospitals.

Every year in England around 50,000 children are hospitalized with pneumonia and around 1,000 die. Approximately 25,000 children are diagnosed with sepsis.

‘This approach is becoming more widely used for young children,’ says Dr Lillie. ‘Although all forms of ECMO involve risks, we have not seen any strokes since starting this new approach.’

Rose and Sam, who have a five-year-old son called Hughie, say Molly’s recovery has been remarkable.

‘The first moment we held him again was amazing,’ says Rose. ‘When you have a baby you take it for granted that you can hold him, but because of all the cables and tubes I couldn’t hold him for over a month.

‘Holding him for an hour or so every day meant the world.’

Rose says Molly is full of energy now. ‘We think a miracle has happened for us,’ he adds. ‘Molly is so lovely, so funny; He runs everywhere and can’t wait to be outside. There is absolute fire within you; this incredible spirit.’