Kallie’s mum Amy writes,
“We live in Ireland. I knew before I went into labour that I was a GBS carrier, so the night I went into labour I rang up to say I was in labour and was told to come straight in as I was positive for GBS and they needed to set me up on an antibiotic drip. I received the drip and the standard dose of antibiotics. Kallie was born with no complications – a healthy 8 pounds 3oz. I stayed in hospital 2 days and was told no more. I thought that was the end of it as I was treated in labour…
…Fast forward 5 weeks, I woke up and Kallie seemed pale. She had just vomited up her last feed she felt hot and clammy and not herself at all…I went to dress her as we had our 6 weeks GP check-up that morning. As I was dressing her she had a really high pitched cry so I rang my GP surgery to see if they could see us straight away, as I knew something wasn’t right. But I didn’t in my wildest dreams think it was meningitis….
When we got to our GP a nurse saw her and checked her temperature. It was 38.8 so she gave us a letter and sent us straight to A&E. In the car trip to A&E kallie started moaning constantly. When we got to A&E we were sent straight to paediatrics. At this time Kallie was lethargic. The Dr saw us straight away, inserting Kallie with a cannular and started treatment of antibiotics straight away.
The first day was telling and she wasn’t stable enough to do a lumbar puncture. They tested her blood and blood cultures which showed an infection during the night while receiving treatment. With fluids and antibiotics Kallie started to become more stable, so the next morning they were able to perform a lumbar puncture. The result of this showed GBS sepsis and meningitis. As a first-time mother this was absolutely heartbreaking for us to see, our beautiful baby girl so sick. Straight away treatment was started and it lasted 21days plus staying in hospital. Every day that passed Kallie got stronger and back to herself. We were discharged from hospital on Monday with our healthy baby. We still don’t know developmentally, if the meningitis has caused any damage, but she’s alive and that’s the main thing…
I thought because I had received antibiotics in labour that there was no way this could happen and I wasn’t told anything about it or what to look out for in case it was to happen. I was basically led to believe if you received the antibiotics your baby had no risk.”
