Tori, mum to Ruben, says:
“Ruben was 29 days old and a beautiful growing, happy baby. I remember that Friday evening so clearly; he fed as normal but was violently sick. His breathing was slightly laboured and he made a funny little noise when I put him down; he just wasn’t himself and something made us phone for an ambulance. Whilst on the way to the hospital his temperature spiked and his heart rate rose. That was the beginning of all the doctors, nurses, tubes and machines.
Ruben deteriorated very quickly. Within a few hours, he was put on a ventilator and transferred to a PICU at a different hospital for specialist treatment. It wasn’t until the next day we received the diagnosis of late-onset group B Strep meningitis and sepsis.
Over the next four days, Ruben underwent numerous CT and MRI scans, and brain monitoring but things went downhill. His poor little body was overwhelmed with the bacteria. He began to suffer multiple seizures, each one hinting that there was extensive brain damage. We had to make the heart-wrenching decision no parent should ever have to make; to move Ruben to a hospice and take him off his ventilator. He passed away peacefully between me and John, on 4 August 2022, at just 33 days old.
GBS was never mentioned to me during my pregnancy. I just wish I’d have known more about the devastating effects of GBS and that late-onset GBS infection existed.”
