After 562 days apart, a seriously ill girl and her family are celebrating her release from hospital.

Melody Driscoll was only supposed to be in Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital for five days when she went in for a biopsy of her large intestine in October 2013.

She has the rare neurological disorder Rett syndrome that causes problems with her brain, intestinal failure, internal bleeding, swelling of her body both internally and externally and her gut does not function so she has to be fed nutrients through a tube. To deal with her pain she is connected to a morphine and ketamine pump 24 hours a day.

Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) originally hoped to establish a home nurse support package, but her health needs raised complications and she remained under hospital care.

Parents Karina and Nigel, 33 and 43 respectively, campaigned to bring Melody home and last summer the eight-year-old was allowed to have short visits.

After convincing the CCG they can cope with her medical treatment, Mr and Mrs Driscoll were finally reunited with Melody at their New Addington home at the start of the month.

Mother-of-four Mrs Driscoll said: “We did not believe it until she was in the car coming home because we thought there would be another hurdle. The whole house is full of smiles and she is so happy.

“We have managed to take her to the park and do something normal.

“We had a welcome home party and put her in a pretty dress rather than her being in a hospital gown. She’s not been home properly with my youngest, who is seven months old, and she saw him in hospital, but now she can be a proper big sister to him.

“After the articles in the paper the CCG was really hands on getting things in place so Melody could come home.”

Melody will be going back to the hospital soon for an operation to remove cataracts.

This is just expected to be a one night stay in the hospital.