She’ll never write her name — or throw a snowball . . .

cutting off their oxygen supply and turning them black. Learning that Kia would lose her limbs was terrible, but it didn’t seem real — it still doesn’t.’

The first amputation was carried out on October 19. The others were carried out at intervals of around ten days in between, to give Kia’s body a chance to rest.

Her right arm has been amputated just below the elbow, her left above the wrist. Her left leg was amputated above the knee, while she’s lost her right leg from the middle of the thigh.

‘Each operation lasted around three hours,’ says Vikki. ‘Every time, it was entering the unknown. We didn’t know how Kia’s body would cope.

‘During the surgery, Paul and I walked into Leeds to try to take our minds off it, but, of course, you can’t.

‘Kia did really well after the first two amputations, but after the last two, she was very poorly. She slept most of the time and, after the final one, she developed a chest infection.

‘Any sort of infection is potentially fatal to Kia because she has no immunity. Paul wasn’t allowed to see her for a couple of days this week because he had a bad cold.

‘She has had kidney problems, too, and has had to have dialysis. She’s also had a couple of blood transfusions. The doctors are worried that her gut isn’t working properly.

‘ It feels as though we’re standing at the edge of a cliff and we don’t know what’s going to happen next.’ Vikki says that while she is realistic about the gravity of Kia’s situation, she has been upset by the ‘negative’ attitude of her daughter’s consultant.

‘Kia’s consultant hasn’t got faith in her. It’s always bad news, always negative. I know you have to be realistic, but I can see the negative stuff in front of me. I need to focus on the positive — I need hope, because hope’s all that’s keeping me going.

‘The consultant has said she thinks only one round of resuscitation would be fair if Kia has a cardiac arrest.

‘But what’s fair about that? Kia has had her arms and legs amputated. That’s not fair.’

BEfOrE

the amputations were carried out, an MrI scan was done, and doctors told Kia’s parents she was ‘90 per cent brain- damaged’. (Meningitis causes infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, as well as blood poisoning).

They were warned that she was almost certainly blind and deaf, and incapable of independent movement.

‘I just don’t agree,’ says Vikki. ‘Kia definitely reacts to sound and me talking to her, and I’ve seen her react to light, too. The other day, she moved the top of her arm, but the doctors just said it was a nervous reaction to the amputation.

‘Kia is on so many drugs at the moment that she can’t be properly assessed. It’s a waiting game. But we’re hoping that the doctors are wrong.

‘The nurses have been wonderful, though. One of them phoned Paul the other day really excited because she’d seen Kia follow her around the room with her eyes.’

Vikki says there is now a plan in place for Kia’s care, which wasn’t there at the beginning because no one thought she would make it.

Kia’s team include a neurologist, a kidney specialist, an eye doctor, a plastic surgeon, a pain team and a physiotherapist.

Over the past few days, the physiotherapist has been able to get Kia out of bed and sit her up on a bean bag.

In the next few weeks, she will need a skin graft, with skin taken from her back and grafted on to her bottom, where she lost skin as a result of the meningitis.

Kia faces many more months in hospital. It will be her first birthday on December 18, and her mum and dad are planning to do everything in their power to make it a happy occasion for their youngest child.

They say they have both grieved to a degree for the loss of their daughter as she was. ‘She was only nine months old, but she was able to walk as she held onto our hands, says Vikki.

‘But now, she’ll never throw a snowball, or put on a pair of gloves, or write her name.

‘Before this, she was saying “ma, ma, ma”, but now we don’t know if she will ever talk.’

SHE

adds: ‘But there will be different milestones that she can achieve. Her life will be different, but it will be fulfilling. She will need a wheelchair and artificial limbs. But what’s most important is that she is loved.’

A spokesman for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said yesterday: ‘In the UK, MenC disease is now very rare across all age groups, including young babies.

‘The MenACWY vaccination programme in teenagers helps protect people of all ages by interrupting transmission of these groups of meningococcal disease. This good population control of MenC disease means the risk to infants is currently low, which is why the JCVI advised that the MenC dose in infants was discontinued.

‘The dose of combined Hib/ MenC offered at 12 months of age provides good protection to toddlers and younger children.

‘In addition, the introduction of MenB vaccine into the infant programme may provide a degree of protection against some cases of MenC disease.’

Of course, a tragedy such as this affects the whole family and Kia’s brother and sister are suffering, too.

‘Kayden is putting on a brave face because he doesn’t want to upset us,’ says Vikki. ‘He’s such a thoughtful boy. Elsie says she wants to buy Kia a pair of legs for Christmas. It’s hard for her because she’s not used to me not being there.’

But for now, Vikki’s vigil goes on. She remains at her daughter’s bedside every day, willing her to get better. They’re taking it one day at a time.

One thing Kia — always such a happy baby before meningitis struck — hasn’t done since she was admitted to hospital is smile. And that’s what Vikki’s waiting for: to see her little girl’s beautiful smile again.

‘If she can smile and just let me know she’s happy, I’ll be OK,’ she says.

That moment, Kia’s family and all her many supporters hope and pray will come soon.

aNyONE who would like to donate to Kia’s fundraising page should go to: justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ cheryl-dibbin