6-Week-Old Baby Girl Started Crying and Wouldn't Stop. Just One Day Later, She Died

Ami Boyd learned her daughter Flossie had a rare genetic condition following her sudden and tragic death at six weeks

NEED TO KNOW

• Ami Boyd learned her daughter Flossie had a rare genetic condition following her sudden and tragic death at six weeks

• Boyd is raising funds to support hospitals with privacy prams, which are specially designed strollers that are used by hospitals to transport deceased babies and young kids, in Flossie’s memory
• She hopes to honor Flossie’s legacy by bringing awareness to infant loss and supporting affected families through her efforts

Ami Boyd's daughter was a perfectly healthy baby at first. But then one day, she started crying — and she wouldn't stop.

When Boyd gave birth to her daughter, Flossie Bilboe, in July 2024, she seemed like a "perfectly healthy, chunky little baby." But things changed in September of that year, when Flossie began crying.

"I took her to A&E in Ormskirk [England], and they worked on her for hours and hours trying to figure out what was wrong with her," Boyd told Liverpool Echo. "She was just crying uncontrollably. It was like a high-pitched screech."

"At this point, we didn't know what possibly could be wrong. At six weeks, we thought she was absolutely fine. We thought maybe she had wind," continued Boyd. "A&E suspected sepsis of some sort, and then we found out she was having a bleed on her brain."

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Flossie was then transported to Alder Hey Children's Hospital by a specialist pediatric ambulance team. Although she was taken into intensive care on a ventilator, her parents were given the heartbreaking news that she might not survive.

"We were advised to turn off the ventilator and she died the next day," said Boyd. "There is no way of putting words to it. It was just one escalation after another. Every time we got our head around what was happening, another thing came along. It got to the point where she didn't even look like herself anymore."

Boyd said her daughter had been "completely normal" and that they called Flossie their "perfect girl."

"We had no reason to think she was unwell. It was so sudden, just this high-pitched scream, and my mum's instinct just kicked in," she explained. "It wasn't a normal cry. I could tell she was in pain."

Later, Boyd and her partner, Michael Bilboe, were informed that Flossie had hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). According to the Mayo Clinic, HHT is an inherited genetic condition that causes atypical links between arteries and veins. This can lead to nosebleeds that happen for no reason, anemia, brain abscess and seizures, amongst other things.

Since Flossie's tragic death, both Boyd and her son Henry, 6, have been diagnosed with HHT.

As her family prepares to mark what would have been Flossie's second birthday, Boyd is hosting a fundraiser walk to traverse the 13.2 miles between Ormskirk Hospital and Alder Hey Children's Hospital. She hopes to raise money to purchase a "privacy pram" for Ormskirk Hospital. These are specially designed strollers that are used by hospitals to transport deceased babies and young kids.

"When Flossie died, one of my vivid memories is having to go through the hospital and shield the baby from being seen," said Boyd. "The anxiety that someone was going to see me holding by dead baby was horrible. A privacy pram allows the family to push their baby instead of carrying them, with a hood that goes over all the way so nobody can look into it."

"It protects the family a bit. It means we can take the baby for a walk around the hospital grounds, because obviously you don't want to leave your baby. It's important to be able to take a minute and take your baby with you," she explained.

Boyd also wants to raise money for the North West and North Wales Pediatric Transport Service, which helped Flossie get to Alder Hey Hospital.

"Flossie would be turning 2, and my aim every year is to try and have some good come from Flossie's birthday," Boyd told Liverpool Echo. "I want her legacy to carry on. I feel like it can't be for nothing. Something good has to come out of her life. It's my way of doing something for her."

"Nobody wants to talk about their baby dying, but it's so important that we do because it actually helps," she continued. "Babies do die. Just being open about it opens that door a little bit."

"It's hard realizing that she would be 2 now. She'd be up and pottering around. It's not just the birthdays and anniversaries that are hard, it's days like today when she'd be at a friend's house or in the paddling pool. It's the same things that take you off your feet, when you think about how her life should have carried on, and it didn't."

To donate to Boyd's fundraiser, titled Walking Flossie's Final Journey, please visit her GoFundMe here.

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