Mum Abbie writes,
“At 18 days old we took our son Louis to A&E, completely unaware that our lives were about to be completely turned upside down. He had refused two bottles, was extremely tired and wouldn’t settle unless he was on me or my partner. He also sounded like he had milk stuck in his chest. We decided to take him to the hospital, hoping we were just being over reactive parents and would be sent home again, but we couldn’t have been more wrong.
Within 10 minutes of arriving at the hospital, he had gone grey and floppy. After notifying the staff, he had 10 doctors surrounding him and he was on life support. He had two seizures within that moment. The days and weeks that followed were the hardest days of our lives.
The following morning he was blue lighted to Great Ormond Street Hospital to start his treatment. During his time there he had two brain scans, two lumbar punctures, a machine to keep him breathing and he was fed through a tube. We couldn’t hold our tiny newborn for four days, they felt like the longest four days of our lives. Our bodies ached to hold our baby.
He was diagnosed with Group B Strep infection, which then led to meningitis. He was barely recognisable during his stay, his whole body was puffy and swollen from the fluid and drugs, his tiny body covered head to toe in wires and cannulas.
He was in hospital for a total of 15 days, and we ended up taking him home again on his actual due date.
My partner is running the London Landmarks Half Marathon in April run to raise awareness for this horrific illness, one that we had no idea existed until Louis was diagnosed.
Our darling boy is now eight months old and absolutely thriving, but it could have been a completely different story had we not acted when we did. We are forever grateful for our little fighter.”