My maternal instinc my daughter was ve turned out she had sepsis like Corrie’s l

Coronation Street viewers were left in shock when little Jack Webster had to have his foot amputated after contracting sepsis from a grazed knee. Like distraught dad Kevin Webster, I too had never heard of the deadly disease until my daughter Lola developed the condition at just two days old, and our world was turned upside down.

I’d had the perfect pregnancy and everything seemed to be going to plan, including going into labour on my due date. The hospital I was supposed to have her at was full, so in a no-roomat-the-inn-style drama, my midwife had to ring round to find a hospital that could take us.

We made it to the delivery suite at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, Greater Manchester with only 30 minutes to spare before Lola arrived into the world – a perfectly healthy 7lb 1oz bundle of joy. But tw o d ay s l a t e r, I knew th e re wa s something terribly wrong with my baby. She was burning up and yelped in pain like a little cat when I picked her up. Worried, I asked one of the doctors to look at her, but he tried to reassure me saying I had probably just over-wrapped her and she had colic. But, as a second-time mum, I knew instinctively he was wrong. My one-year-old, Gracie (now 13) had suffered from colic, and this was different. Lola wasn’t too hot because I had her wrapped up – she definitely had a temperature. So, when a junior doctor popped into our room, I told her my fears and demanded a second opinion. Thank God I did. She got a more senior doctor to take a look and he immediately ordered a lumbar puncture. I remember asking him if he thought my baby had meningitis, and the horror when he said yes. It was like someone had stabbed me in the heart. They scooped my baby from m her away for the painful what was making her ill.

At that age, babies are relief. Instead, a nurse d water to distract her as a from her spinal column t

I was alone on the mate ately trying to phone m listening to other mum healthy babies. It was the

Kevin Webster and sick son Jack

LOVING LIFE Lola, now 11