Anthony Reid

This story is about my son.

Anthony was my beautiful healthy first born baby, he was born full term with no complications weighing a beautiful 6 pounds 7 ounces.

For the first 5 or 6 days of his life he was just a normal happy sleepy newborn. Around his 7th day of life things changed. He was always very unsettled there would be moments after feeding where he would scream or cry straight after, which I as a first time mother put it down to gas. But the tears got worse and the crying became more apparent. I spoke to my GP and he said it was just reflux. Okay, that sounds normal. (Sepsis and Children)

Yet on his 13th day of life, everything changed. My baby became very mottled and lethargic, he was extremely warm to touch so I took his temperature. A sky-rocketing 39.4 degree temperature at 2 weeks old. My mother and I rushed him to hospital and we were taking to emergency immediately. There were 3 doctors, 4 nurses all huddled around my baby trying to figure out what was wrong with him. The first thing they said to me is, we have no idea how he isn’t having seizures. They put an oxygen mask on him and started antibiotics. They had no idea what was wrong with my baby. Next thing you know they tell me they think it’s meningococcal infection so they do a spinal tap, my 2 week old was having a spinal tap. I was a complete and utter mess. Then came the blood tests.

We were admitted into isolation in peds ward awaiting the blood results. 2 am the next morning the doctors come in and explain to me my son has sepsis caused via a UTI. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections)

My heart sank. It was already shutting down his kidneys and his survival rate was 30%. How in the world was a first time mother even meant to know that her son who can’t use words and cries for no reason all the time had a UTI in the first place? You couldn’t. If I hadn’t checked his temperature, my baby would have been gone that night.

However it may be, they sent us to a hospital in Brisbane first thing in the morning, but for the time being they placed him on antibiotics. 10 Am that morning we were taken to the hospital. Anthony was then taken straight to theater and had a PICC line in his arm to get the antibiotics into his system faster. We were then in hospital for another two weeks and he had overcome all odds.

Since then, he has a very weak immune system. His body just can’t fight everything but he is here and alive in my arms and for that I thank God every day.

Anthony turns 1 on the 20th of August and without Lady Cilento and Caboolture Hospital, he wouldn’t be here.

I love you endlessly, son.

Source: Chante Hohenhaus, mother