here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nNow aged three, Conor has faced a new surgical technique to save his life, which doctors believe to have been a world-first.<\/p>\n
Conor was diagnosed with vein of galen malformation (VOGM) – which affects roughly 10 to 12 babies in the UK each year.<\/p>\n
![\"Lucy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754699830_890_0_Surgeons-use-new-technique-to-save-the-life-of-boy-with-VOGM.jpg\")
Lucy O’Rourke, her partner Sean and their son Conor(Image: Lucy O’Rourke\/PA Wire )<\/p>\n
The condition causes the veins and arteries in the brain to connect abnormally, increasing bloodflow and leading to severe complications if undetected.<\/p>\n
Conor was one of a rare subgroup of patients, meaning the usual treatment did not work.<\/p>\n
Lucy described the last couple of years as an \u201cout of body experience\u201d for her and husband Sean O\u2019Rourke, 38.<\/p>\n
She told PA that Conor was around eight or nine months old when she took him to an appointment for a potential umbilical hernia, a usually harmless condition when the intestines bulge through the opening in muscle near the belly button.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cHe was looking at his his belly button, and then suddenly wanted to ask me questions about his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd obviously I was slightly confused at that point. I didn\u2019t really know what the issue was, I\u2019m just looking at my beautiful baby, and didn\u2019t think that there was an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs O\u2019Rourke said the consultant asked about the shape of her son\u2019s head, adding: \u201cHe felt like he had quite a pronounced forehead; it was quite a large head.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he had very visible veins on his forehead, and his temples, round his eyes. And we had seen those things, but obviously we didn\u2019t in a million years think that there was something sinister going on.<\/p>\n
![\"Conor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754699831_439_0_Surgeons-use-new-technique-to-save-the-life-of-boy-with-VOGM.jpg\")
Conor O’Rourke(Image: Lucy O’Rourke\/PA Wire )<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought he was very fair skinned, and that was why we could see his veins.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking back now, I look at pictures, and I think, \u2018oh yeah, you can sort of see now\u2019, knowing what we know. But in that moment in time, I was a new mum, first-time mum, didn\u2019t really spot anything untoward, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs O\u2019Rourke said that at the time of the appointment, Conor had not yet sat up on his own but had met all his other milestones.<\/p>\n
She was warned to take her son to A&E if he suddenly started vomiting or was difficult to rouse after sleeping, although she was reassured it was probably nothing to worry about.<\/p>\n
However, Mrs O\u2019Rourke said the conversation played on her mind, and she called her GP the following day.<\/p>\n
Conor was sent for an MRI in March 2023 and the couple were not worried until they were called into a family room.<\/p>\n
At that stage, doctors did not know what was wrong with Conor but told the family he had a \u201csignificant brain issue\u201d that would require surgery.<\/p>\n
The results were assessed by specialists at another hospital, with more scans ordered for Conor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was only after those scans that they said to us that they think that it\u2019s vein of galen malformation and then started to explain to us a little bit what that meant,\u201d Mrs O\u2019Rourke said.<\/p>\n
![\"Conor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754699832_450_0_Surgeons-use-new-technique-to-save-the-life-of-boy-with-VOGM.jpg\")
Conor after his surgery(Image: Lucy O’Rourke\/PA Wire )<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in reality, they\u2019d never seen it before in Bolton.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs O\u2019Rourke said the experience was \u201cterrifying\u201d and the couple felt \u201chelpless\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the whole of this, really, it\u2019s definitely been a bit of an out of body experience,\u201d she told PA.<\/p>\n
Conor was sent to Alder Hey and had three operations called endovascular embolisations, which involves inserting a small, flexible tube called a catheter into the arteries, usually from the groin.<\/p>\n
Medics use X-ray imaging to guide the tube through the body and into place, and then inject a glue-like substance to block off the artery.<\/p>\n
In some cases, the same procedure can be performed by inserting the catheter into the veins.<\/p>\n
However, Conor is one of a rare subgroup of patients where veins block off and doctors can no longer get to the malformation.<\/p>\n
When this happens, the jugular veins \u2013 a set of major blood vessels in the neck \u2013 also block off, causing the veins from the brain to try and drain elsewhere.<\/p>\n
According to the toddler\u2019s surgeon, Conor Mallucci, this was causing swelling and damage to the toddler\u2019s brain stem and spinal cord, leading to him to deteriorate.<\/p>\n
![\"Conor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754699832_264_0_Surgeons-use-new-technique-to-save-the-life-of-boy-with-VOGM.jpg\")
Conor with surgeon Conor Mallucci, who helped operate him and save his life(Image: Lucy O’Rourke\/PA Wire )<\/p>\n
Mr Mallucci told PA: \u201cIt\u2019s a fight against time, and that happened quite early in Conor, which is why we had to come up with this alternative route.\u201d<\/p>\n
The operation involved accessing the malformation through Conor\u2019s skull to target the affected blood vessels.<\/p>\n
He recovered well and is now considered \u201c99% cured\u201d by Mr Mallucci.<\/p>\n
Mrs O\u2019Rourke said the family feels lucky in some ways. She said: \u201cAs much as I feel like this is an incredibly unlucky diagnosis, I sometimes have to pull that back and think actually we were incredibly lucky in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were already under a consultant at Royal Manchester Children\u2019s, who mentioned something.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then we were also incredibly lucky, in a way, that I\u2019m very much an over-thinker, and I was an anxious mum, to not leave it there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd thank goodness that we did. Because if we didn\u2019t, I don\u2019t know where we would actually be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conor recently graduated from nursery and will be attending pre-school with his peers in September.<\/p>\n
Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\nMrs O\u2019Rourke said she is \u201cso proud\u201d of her \u201cresilient\u201d son, adding: \u201cAt one point they were saying, \u2018we may want to hold him back\u2019 and \u2018maybe it might be a bit too much for him\u2019. But they\u2019ve said now that they think he\u2019s doing incredibly well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s brilliant. And it was just magical to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Rourke has also committed to running the Manchester Marathon next April to raise money for Alder Hey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you just doesn\u2019t cut it,\u201d Mrs O\u2019Rourke said. \u201cThey not only saved his life, they saved ours too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now he has faced a ‘world-first’ type of surgeryConor O’Rourke has faced ‘world first’ surgery(Image: Lucy O’Rourke\/PA Wire)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[279,105,455,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-329227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-bolton","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-real-life","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114996015684634982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Conor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Surgeons-use-new-technique-to-save-the-life-of-boy-with-VOGM.jpg\")
Conor O’Rourke has faced ‘world first’ surgery(Image: Lucy O’Rourke\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n