Fear of rioters attacking children's hospital prevents parents from spending night with their dying baby



The parents of a dying baby who needs an urgent transplant could not be at her bedside because of rioters.



Thugs had threatened to fire bomb Birmingham Children's Hospital and storm the wards on Monday night.



Brave staff formed a human shield around its doors while police ordered a total lockdown.



That prevented Chris and Julie Bryon-Edmond from staying overnight with their one-month-old daughter Lottie for the first time.

Despair: Chris and Julie Bryon-Edmond, from Torquay, Devon, couldn't spend the night with their daughter, Lottie, at Birmingham Children's Hospital because of thugs

Lottie, who was born seven weeks prematurely, is at the top of the UK's super transplant list and will die in weeks without a new liver.



She was born at Torbay Hospital in Devon with the rare condition neonatal haemochromatosis.

Toxic levels of iron built up in her liver while she was developing in her mother's womb, leaving her critically ill and in desperate need of a transplant.



Neither of her parents can act as liver donors because she is so small, so she needs a liver from a child.

Attacks: Rioters threatened to fire bomb Birmingham Children's Hospital (pictured)

The family slammed the rioters who used Twitter to encourage thugs to storm the hospital just after 9pm on Monday night.



The couple said they should 'come and see the cost of their selfishness'.



An aunt, who travelled from Spain to visit the sick baby, was also unable to get through the gangs armed with broken bottles and knives who surrounded the hospital.



Financial adviser Chris, 47, from Torquay, said: ‘It is an unbelievable rollercoaster of emotions, it's ghastly.



‘Every moment, Julie and I have a moment of euphoria that Lottie hasn't died despite being one of the most critically ill babies in the country.’



Rioting and looting: Police dispersed in Birmingham City Centre yesterday after three nights of rioting in London

Sales manager Julie said: ‘We are on a knife edge. She only really has a month to find a liver and it is out of our control.



‘It may be too late for us,’ said Julie who has launched a campaign to get an extra one million people signed up as transplant donors.

