Amber Milnes, a five-year-old girl from St Just in Roseland, Cornwall, passed away days after she had undergone tonsil removal surgery at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro on 5 April 2023.The little girl suffered from sleep apnoea, a condition where your breathing stops and starts while you sleep.However, while most children who undergo this type of surgery are discharged from the hospital the same day, Amber suffered from yet another condition known as cyclical vomiting syndrome (CVS). It is a condition when you experience cycles of severe nausea, vomiting and exhaustion that can last from a few hours up to a few days.

According to My Cleveland Clinic, CVS can continue for months, years, or even decades, but symptoms don’t appear daily. Most people experience episodes a few times a year, though in some cases they can happen as often as once or twice a month.For each individual, the symptoms, timing, frequency, severity, and duration of episodes are usually consistent. However, these factors can differ from one person to another.As Amber suffered from this condition, it left her dehydrated and in need of medical help over the years.Because of this, her parents believed the girl should stay at the hospital over night following her tonsils removal surgery, but despite their request, she was discharged the same day.