'He is a trooper' - Kildare family's first Christmas at home with baby boy after illness fight

A family living in Kildare are looking forward to spending their first Christmas at home with their baby boy who has been battling multiple illnesses in hospital.

Baby Archie Wall was born premature at 35 weeks in July 2024 and spent his first Christmas in hospital.

After he was born, he wasn't gaining any weight and his mother, Shanice, felt something wasn’t right.

At the time, Shanice and her partner Cormac were living in Cavan, so she brought him several times to Cavan General Hospital. Each time she was told to bring him home, but her concern never lifted.

When he was five weeks old she spotted a lump on his groin and returned to the hospital.

Tests showed protein in Archie’s urine, which pointed to a kidney issue. That evening Archie was taken by ambulance to CHI at Temple Street.

Within a day or two he was diagnosed with congenital nephrotic syndrome. Both Shanice and Cormac carry the gene. Doctors told them that Archie would need to be admitted for a long stay and that it could be up to a year. For a first-time mother, it was an overwhelming start.

The early months in Temple Street were frightening. Archie became very sick very quickly and needed a line so he could receive daily albumin, a blood type product he depended on.

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Those infusions could take hours and continued for nearly seven months. He developed sepsis, and then another episode of sepsis a little later. He was treated for meningitis, and on Christmas Eve he picked up a strain of coronavirus. “He fought every single bit of it,” Shanice says. He was still only a few months old.

Things slowly improved in January and Archie began to gain weight, feed better and show more of the baby he was becoming, but his kidneys were still leaking albumin and other nutrients.

Surgery was inevitable. One kidney was removed in March 2025, and the second will be removed early next year. After that he will begin peritoneal dialysis at home for several years until he is big enough for an adult kidney transplant, usually around the age of five.

Archie spent eight months in hospital altogether. He was discharged in April and that was the first time Shanice and Cormac could finally bring him home and try to settle into family life.

They are now staying with Shanice’s parents in Kildare to be closer to Temple Street because Archie still has regular appointments. He attends the hospital every second week and sees the public health nurse weekly for his weigh-ins. He also goes to physio when needed so the team can check the milestones he missed during months spent in a hospital bed.

At home he is a different child. “He is amazing. He is a trooper,” Shanice said.

“He crawls around the furniture, scoots across the floor and chatters away. When people hear what he went through they are usually surprised.

“You would not think there was anything wrong with him,” she said. “He is so clever. He is so funny.”

Shanice says the staff in Temple Street played a huge part in getting them through everything. She remembers feeling as though she was grieving the life she had imagined as a new mother.

Friends were at home with their babies while she was watching her son fight one illness after another. The nurses and consultants were a constant source of support. They explained everything, step by step, and they knew Archie so well that they could comfort him when he cried and take him to the nurses’ station to give his parents a break.

“They love Archie like their own,” she said.

The family spent Christmas 2024 in the hospital and Shanice remembers how hard it was.

They limited visitors because of the infection risk and tried to keep the day as calm as possible. What stayed with her was the dedication of the staff, many of whom were working on very little sleep. Seeing how much they gave to families made her understand just how important fundraising is for the hospital.

This year they plan to keep Christmas simple. They will put up their tree, spend time with family in Cavan or in Kildare, and enjoy the things they missed last year. “We just want to enjoy every single bit of it,” Shanice said.

As part of Children’s Health Foundation’s ‘Save a Smile’ campaign, Shanice hopes people will remember that many families will be in hospital this Christmas. She knows how isolating it can feel and how much support matters.

“There are other families struggling,” she said. “And they are going through it.”

Supporting the campaign, she feels, helps to make those long days and nights a little easier for the parents who are still on that journey.

This Christmas, Children’s Health Foundation has launched the ‘Save a Smile’ Campaign – an emotional reminder that this Christmas, some children won’t wake up at home, they’ll wake up in hospital. But with the support and generosity of supporters across the country, they won’t miss out on the magic.

Help Children’s Health Foundation ‘Save a Smile’ this Christmas, Support the appeal today at childrenshealth.ie or text SAVEASMILE to 50300 to donate €4.