George’s mum Chloe writes,
“In 2021 we were finally blessed with our miracle pregnancy, after facing a lengthy fertility battle.
Pregnancy was challenging from the start. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and was at high risk of pre-eclampsia, so was monitored weekly with bloods & scans.
To our surprise, we were rushed into hospital at 28 weeks, and our miracle baby was born at 28+6 weeks. Making him 11 weeks early. We managed to get a short cuddle after our emergency Caesarean before he was rushed to Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU), where he spent the next 70 days.
We were finally discharged, but after six short days at home, George became extremely unwell very quickly. He stopped feeding, was crying uncontrollably and his breathing became more like a grunt and a real struggle, all within eight hours. We rushed up to the hospital, and instantly the doctor said he was septic. They started antibiotics, completed a lumbar puncture and took a number of blood tests. Finally, three days later we were told he had group B Strep infection, which had turned to sepsis. This was the first time we had ever heard of GBS, and we were in complete disbelief. After all the health conditions we were made aware of, and prepped for in such a high-risk pregnancy, no one had mentioned GBS, which I find now really disappointing, given how dangerous it can be.
As a preemie baby, George was given antibiotics at birth and a short course at 9 weeks old. We were told the chances of this happening were one in a million. George fought hard for five days in hospital, before being discharged with a cannula, which stayed in for two more days, where we travelled up to hospital to have antibiotics administered.
It’s with thanks to the doctor on Easter Monday, who started antibiotics so quickly, George is still here. They never imagined for a second that his diagnosis would have been group B Strep infection.
George is now a thriving 17-week old baby (6 week corrected!)”