AS LITTLE Joshua Burnham perches on his mother's lap he looks just like any other baby - cute, content and cuddly.
However, the five-month-old tot from Greenlands has used a kidney dialysis machine since he was just two weeks old making him one of the youngest to receive the treatment at Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Now, alongside his crib, which is filled with the usual paraphernalia such as teddies, a mobile and soft baby blankets, lies the machine which for 12 to 14 hours every night works as an artificial kidney.
At just 12 days old he spent time in the intensive care unit after his kidneys became overloaded with urine and the following day suffered a cardiac arrest which took doctors eight minutes to bring him back to life.

Joshua's mum Claire said: "I'd had a Cesarean section and wasn't at the hospital at the time so when they told me I dropped the phone and screamed. I was in tears because I was so far away and couldn't just get there in minutes. It was a nightmare."
Doting parents Claire and Paul found out he had renal failure when at 29 weeks pregnant she was sent to Birmingham Women's Hospital after experiencing little movement from her son.
Joshua was found to have a blockage in his bladder and could not urinate causing a build-up which had damaged his kidneys. Doctors, though, could not operate until he was born.

Doctors had hoped that at three months old his kidneys would start to function, but, after his stay in intensive care they decided to put him onto a kidney dialysis machine.
Joshua is likely to need a transplant and on top of the usual newborn routine his parents have to make sure his fluids are restricted, change his dressing three days a week and give him a renal milk formula.

Claire said: "He is such a good boy, very brave and so strong. It still really upsets me to look at him and think about all he has gone through and all he has got to go through.
"He is a great baby and we wouldn't want to be without him."

The family is also extremely grateful to the staff at the Children's Hospital, which opened up the most advanced kidney unit for children in Britain on Wednesday (February 24).
Dr Hulton, Joshua's nephrology consultant, said: “Dramatic advances that have taken place in the last five years in haemo and peritoneal dialysis mean that we are now able to treat very young patients like Joshua, which is obviously a great comfort to parents who have children born with renal problems.

"He is one of the youngest patients we have cared for who receives his peritoneal dialysis treatment at home.”

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