I lost my baby to sepsis from a stranger’s cough
A mother who lost her baby to sepsis has told how doctors fear her daughter contracted the deadly condition after being coughed or sneezed on by a stranger.
the tragedy unfolded at a terrifying pace after Charlotte Cooper noticed that her ninemonth-old child heidi had developed a fever.
treated initially for a viral ‘sickness bug’, heidi deteriorated rapidly and was admitted to intensive care, where she went into cardiac arrest.
Despite the efforts of medics at Wishaw General hospital in Lanarkshire, she never recovered and was pronounced brain dead less than three days after her symptoms appeared.
A week after heidi’s death, doctors told mrs Cooper and her husband Andrew, both 39, that their daughter had contracted pneumococcal septicaemia, which caused sepsis and meningitis.
mrs Cooper said: ‘her infection was pneumococcal, which she caught from someone coughing or sneezing, according to the doctors.’
Now the Coopers have begun a fundraising campaign to boost awareness of the condition in the hope that other families need not endure the same trauma.
mrs Cooper, from Airdrie, Lanarkshire, said: ‘Parents need to know more about sepsis, as it kills so many people. I can’t help but think that if we knew more about sepsis heidi could still be here.’
the couple had tried for two years to have a child and were overjoyed when heidi was born last September.
But last month mrs Cooper became concerned when heidi woke from her monday afternoon nap with a fever, would not stop crying and was constantly sick. After calling 111 and visiting the local health centre, they were sent to the hospital. By tuesday afternoon, heidi’s fever had come down and she managed to eat something, so she was sent home.
But her condition worsened and on the Wednesday the family returned to the hospital.
early the following morning, doctors broke the news that she was septic. By the time her father arrived at the hospital, she was struggling to breathe.
As she was being taken to theatre, heidi’s heart stopped. She was revived and transferred to the Queen elizabeth University hospital in Glasgow but on arriving there was pronounced brain dead.
‘We had all the family there when we switched off the life support on July 11,’ said mrs Cooper. ‘It was the worst moment of our lives. I never realised heidi was dangerously ill… it still feels like a hell we can’t escape from.’
She has set up a Just Giving page, https://www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/heidi-cooper19, and has already raised more than £2,700 for Sepsis research FEAT.