A family from Brecon has described their anguish following a five-year battle for a medical diagnosis for their young son.

After countless hospital trips due to her son’s stomach pain, Rebecca Davies paid for a private consultation for her five-year-old son Joseph.

It was during this consultation that doctors discovered Joseph had two large intestines.

“I just broke down in tears I was so happy and so sad that they’d listened to me, I was made to feel like I was a hypochondriac mother so finally confirming there is something wrong when I’ve been made to doubt myself all this time was emotional,” said Rebecca.

Joseph was born on August 27, 2017, and was diagnosed with a rare condition - situs inversus with Dextra Cardia - meaning his organs are on the opposite side of where they are meant to be.

He also suffers from congenital scoliosis and to make matters worse he also suffered stomach issues which left his parents as well as doctors bewildered for years.

The family says that regular trips to NHS doctors around the country saw Rebecca told there was nothing wrong with her son, and despite this, he seemed to struggle to eat without vomiting, and suffered from fatigue.

“Joseph has been quite ill since he was born and we’ve been fighting for years but there has been something wrong with him - we’ve been misdiagnosed and in and out of hospital his whole life,” said Rebecca.

Joseph’s illness continued until the family lost patience and decided to pay £300 for a private consultation.

There, the real crux of the issue was discovered.

“We paid privately for a consultation at Great Ormand Street Hospital, there they discovered within half a day that he has as two large intestines - one of which is connected to his urethra,” said Rebecca.

“He now needs extensive reconstructive surgery to remove as much of the colon as possible.

“We now have the operation this week at Great Ormand Street Hospital, so now we’ve set up a fundraiser to help us with accommodation and trips back and forth to London during his lengthy recovery.”

To date, that has seen the family raise a whopping £4,235 for the cause that you can donate to here: www.gofundme.com/f/joeys-warrior-fund.

However, while the positives are clear in the situation, Rebecca admitted she wasn’t completely happy with how the situation was handled by the NHS.

“There have been times where more could have been done, Joseph has a lot going on, he has scoliosis his organs are back to front, they gave him a colonoscopy and a bladder scan twice but found that if they couldn’t find something they assumed nothing was wrong and he would be deferred for a year onto a waiting list,” said Rebecca.

“Because of the symptoms he was having they should have checked for more things, he has had constant infections in his urine, for example.”

Powys Teaching Health Board declined to comment on the specific case but did issue a statement.

A spokesperson for Powys Teaching Health Board said: “We are not able to comment on individual care and treatment.

“The NHS aims to provide the very best care and treatment, but if someone is not happy with the health care, they have received then the Putting Things Right process is here to help.

“More information about the Putting Things Right process is available by contacting the health board including from our website at: pthb.NHS.wales/feedback-concerns.”