Becca tells us “My little boy, Albie, was born on December 26, 2023. Although he had a grunt when he was born, the doctor did not check him and we were discharged.
Everything seemed fine until the second night when he refused milk and started making coughing and gasping noises. The next morning, we took him to A&E where the doctor initially thought he had the start of a chest infection and was going to send us home.
However, I refused because Albie wasn’t having any milk. Other doctors saw him and noticed signs of an infection, so they started antibiotics. Later that evening, Albie started to deteriorate and had seizures. It wasn’t until the next day that they did a lumbar puncture, but by then we were getting transferred to Addenbrookes.
When we got there, they diagnosed him with group B Strep meningitis. An MRI showed that he was brain damaged from all of this. We do not know how long we will have Albie for, or if he does survive how severe his brain damage will be. He is now 5 weeks old, and we are hoping to get him home so we can spend time together as a family.
But with just one swab and my local hospital picking up the signs he had an infection before he was discharged, we would be in a completely different outcome. I was unaware of group B Strep, and didn’t know I could be tested during pregnancy. I’m hoping this will change, as if I had been swabbed, Albie’s infection could have been prevented. I feel like we are living in a nightmare.”
