ON the mantelpiece of Elise Schwarz's home in the south side of Glasgow sits a cluster of photographs of her son Evan.

His bright blue eyes and wavy blond hair stand out amid the tangle of tubes and ventilators.

It is two years this month since Evan passed away in his mother's arms.

The story of his tragically fleeting life is documented in a book, I Believe in Evan, which Elise wrote based on her diaries and journals.

The Glasgow-born lawyer, then living in New York, had left Evan in the care of a nanny when she went to work.

On February 17, 2012 Elise received a heart-breaking text message saying that Evan, only five months old, had been rushed to a Manhattan hospital.

The paramedics had worked to resuscitate him but he was unresponsive.

By the time Elise saw her son, Evan was in a coma and had been placed on a ventilator.

The diagnosis from doctors was swift: shaken baby syndrome.

As Evan fought for his life in an intensive care unit, Elise kept a 24-hour vigil at his bedside.

Yet, her nightmare was only beginning.

While the police never doubted Elise was innocent, child protection services sought court action to remove custody of her son.

"There were times when I almost didn't keep going," she says. "I had this image of holding on by the skin of my fingernails.

"That is how tenuous my grip on sanity felt. I could have gone over the edge at any point."

After much anguish, described by Elise as a "horrendous emotional experience", she successfully battled the petition.

When charges were eventually brought against Evan's nanny at the New York City Family Court, she accepted a finding of child abuse.

The nanny's name was added to the Central Registry as a child abuser and she was banned from working with children for 28 years.

Evan spent nine months in a long-term care facility in upstate New York.

When he was stable enough to be transferred, Elise chose to return to Glasgow.

Evan was admitted to the former Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill in December 2012.

Elise recalls happy hours spent with her son at nearby Sense Scotland in Kinning Park, where Evan responded well to music and sensory room sessions.

"The best signs came here in Scotland because Evan thrived," she says.

"He had quite significantly come out of his coma by that time."

By the summer of 2013, Evan's condition had improved enough to spend a few days each week at home with Elise and his grandmother, Pat.

That September, he was allowed to leave hospital.

But less than six months later, Evan took ill again.

His temperature spiked and he was re-admitted to hospital.

Despite the efforts of doctors, Evan's condition deteriorated and his heart began to fail.

He passed away in his mother's arms aged just two-and-a-half.

"I was there with him," says Elise. "Much as it was an awful day and I wish it hadn't happened, I feel fortunate in a lot of ways for the way it did.

"He was in with the best doctors and thoroughly cared for. They did everything they possibly could."

Elise spends most days thinking about Evan, looking at his picture and talking tenderly to him.

"I will never not have Evan in my heart," she says. "His light won't ever fade."

I Believe in Evan by Elise Schwarz is published by John Blake, priced £7.99. To make a donation to Sense Scotland, visit justgiving.com/elise-schwarz