Chloe M.

Survivor

Chloe was a healthy 15-day-old baby when she got sick. We’d spent the morning at a farm where she ate and slept like normal. I noticed her breathing heavily, but it was a hot day and I thought nothing of it. (Sepsis and Children) On the drive home she started to cry. It was the first time we’d heard her cry (except for when she needed a feed).

When we got home she was inconsolable. I’ve never seen a baby cry like that. She wouldn’t feed. I decided to give her a bath to make sure there weren’t any grass seeds or anything else from the farm sticking in to her skin. When I undressed her, her entire abdomen had a bruise-like mark covering it. Oddly, this mark went away within an hour and despite getting a photo, the doctors never worked out the cause.

Once in the bath she swapped between screaming and ‘sleeping’ (I now think she was unconscious). When I got her out I decided to call an ambulance because of her abdomen and then she wouldn’t wake up and I noticed her breathing was laboured. The ambulance arrived within three minutes and she was on antibiotics within half an hour. Her heart rate was ranging between 220-235bpm.

After a bladder aspiration, blood test, lumbar puncture and ECG we waited for a diagnosis. Over this time her breathing worsened, she developed jaundice and she could not keep down milk. A nasal gastric tube was inserted and she received her sustenance through the IV for two days before we could introduce feeds again. After 24 hours the blood cultures came back positive for GBS and she was diagnosed with GBS sepsis. (Sepsis and Group B Streptococcus) Her cerebral spinal fluid came back negative. We were told she would need 7 days of IV antibiotics, but unfortunately she did not respond as expected and she required an 18 day hospitalisation.

Chloe is now a confident and funny three year old. We were very lucky. Chloe was in the hospital and on antibiotics within 2.5 hours of us first noticing she was a little bit off colour. I hate to think what would have happened if we had have waited to seek medical attention. It is incredibly scary to see first hand how fast this illness takes hold.

Source: Tara (mother)

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