{"id":621092,"date":"2026-06-04T16:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/621092\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T16:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:54:14","slug":"doctors-thought-schoolboy-7-was-constipated-then-his-family-were-urged-to-say-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/621092\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors thought schoolboy, 7, was constipated – then his family were ‘urged’ to say goodbye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine-year-old Rafi battled through a coma and multiple seizures after contracting a rare form of E.coli – his dad said doctors initially believed he was constipated\"Rafi<\/p>\n

Rafi was placed on life support aged seven after contracting a rare form of E.Coli(Image: Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

A dad has revealed how doctors told him his seven-year-old son was ‘constipated’ – only for him to turn out to have a rare form of E.coli <\/a>that left him in a coma with kidney<\/a> failure.<\/p>\n

Dean Amer, 37, a guitar teacher living in Bracknell in Berkshire and father to Rafi, now nine, said his son was sent home from school<\/a> in September 2023 after vomiting. This was followed by two painful weeks of severe cramps – but in two separate appointments, doctors misdiagnosed Rafi with constipation and a stomach bug.<\/p>\n

When Dean noticed blood in Rafi’s stool, he called an ambulance and his son was rushed to hospital<\/a>. He was diagnosed with stage four kidney failure, multiple seizures, a brain injury, and three cardiac arrests. Doctors managed to resuscitate Rafi, and he was placed on life support. Dean said his family – including his wife, Laura Amer, 37, and daughter, Sienna, 14 – were “urged” to say their goodbyes.<\/p>\n

\"He<\/p>\n

He was diagnosed with stage four kidney failure but has spent the last two years recovering(Image: Sophie Williams\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

Rafi was diagnosed with Shiga-toxin producing E.coli-haemolytic uraemic syndrome (STEC-HUS), which is a rare condition that affects the kidneys and is most common among very young children under five, according to Kidney Research UK.<\/p>\n

“Emotionally, we were all over the place,” Dean said. “It was horrible. He was in a lot of pain by then.” Dean said it was “shocking” to see his son placed on dialysis, and being given the STEC-HUS diagnosis days later.<\/p>\n

\"Rafi<\/p>\n

Rafi was placed in a coma, given an artificial lung and put on dialysis(Image: Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

He explained that after suffering neurological symptoms of “extreme aggressiveness and behavioural changes”, Rafi was placed in a coma for two weeks, and put on an ECMO artificial lung machine to keep his heart pumping.<\/p>\n

Dean said there was “no response” from Rafi for about six months, until he slowly started producing urine, which “showed that there was some healing beginning to happen”. His heart began to improve around this time too, and Dean said: “Slowly, more and more responses started to come about and it began with blinking and eye tracking.<\/p>\n

“I would test him over and over again to see his state of consciousness, so I would put an iPad in front of him. We’d be talking to him, and I’d show him pictures of his sister, and I’d say, Go and follow Sienna’, and I’d move the iPad up. One day, his eyes went up… and we had the beginnings of life again.”<\/p>\n

Rafi was in a high-dependency unit for a total of nine months so Dean, Laura, and Sienna moved into a Ronald McDonald House in Southampton to be closer to him, where they ended up staying for 186 nights.<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/p>\n

Now nine, Rafi has relearnt how to talk, eat, sit up, and stand independently(Image: Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

The seven-year-old was then moved to a brain rehabilitation institution for three months, before he was able to come home by the end of 2024. When he regained consciousness, Dean said his son had “lost the ability to do everything and anything” – so his recovery has been “very slow”.<\/p>\n

As of this week, he can now talk, eat, sit up, and has now learnt to stand independently, and Dean described him as the “happiest, most content boy you’ll ever meet”.<\/p>\n

“He has a resilience that I could only dream to have”, he added. The family have set up a Facebook<\/a> page called Rafi’s Recovery<\/a> to help people follow his journey.<\/p>\n

Pop star Pixie Lott has recorded a new single ‘I’m Gonna Be (79 Miles)’ in partnership with McDonald’s to highlight the average distance families supported by Ronald McDonald House UK will travel to be with their seriously ill or injured child in hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine-year-old Rafi battled through a coma and multiple seizures after contracting a rare form of E.coli – his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[22673,59,102,210863,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-621092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-e-coli","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-southampton-general-hospital","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}