Baby’s one in 1,000,000 condition was diagnosed after a comment about his head

A passing comment about the size of a baby’s head led to the infant being diagnosed with an extremely rare birth defect.

Surgeons at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool have now used a brand new technique to save the boy’s life in what’s thought to be a world first.

Conor O’Rourke was around eight or nine months old when his mum Lucy O’Rourke, 36, took him to an appointment with a consultant over an issue with his belly button in 2023.

While they were there the doctor raised concerns about the size of Conor’s head, and in March of that year he was diagnosed with vein of galen malformation (VOGM), which his mum said was ‘terrifying’.

Lucy explained: ‘I genuinely felt like I was living in a nightmare, and I felt like there was going to be a point where somebody was going to phone