MUM’S QUICK REACTION SAVED SON THEO FROM MENINGITIS TRAGEDY
AMUM is warning that looking for a rash to check for meningitis may not be enough to save very young children. Newborn baby Theo didn’t want to feed, was unsettled and had a rapidly rising temperature.
But when he vomited and it was bright orange mum Catherine Gourdie, from Usk in Monmouthshire, knew something was very wrong. Theo had contracted bacterial meningitis.
Luckily for him, mum Catherine acted fast.
She said: “At the start of the day that Theo turned three weeks old he seemed totally fine. But by mid morning he was a bit off his feeds and unsettled and started moaning in his sleep.
“He had a slight temperature, so I made an appointment at the doctors. The earliest I could get was that afternoon. I couldn’t relax, though, he really wasn’t right and in my gut I knew something was wrong but there were no strong symptoms of anything.
“Then he vomited and it was bright orange. I knew this was very wrong so we rang the doctors again and asked to be seen immediately. They were great and said we could go straight there.
“At the doctors he was really unsettled, completely refusing to feed which was so unlike him. His temperature was 38.2C and it had gone up very rapidly.
“The GP sent us to our local children’s ward. In the car he started to go very grey. In the 20 minutes it took for us to get to hospital he’d really gone downhill. His cry changed and he was arching his back.”
Because of a recent tragedy in the family Catherine was very aware of the risks of meningitis.
“The moment a nurse saw him we were rushed to a treatment room,” she said.
“Quite quickly the consultant explained they would need to do a lumbar puncture. My husband’s cousin lost his baby to meningitis so we were very aware of it and they confirmed our worst fears, they suspected it, too.”
“Theo’s stomach had distended and he hadn’t filled his nappy all morning. They explained it was a paralysed bowel from the infection. Once they did the lumbar puncture they put him on four kinds of antibiotics.”
“Then we waited. It was the worst few hours of our lives. No one can ever explain in words that kind of fear.”
Thankfully, once Theo had gone on to the antibiotics he started making a recovery.
“He did a little poop. I’ve never been so happy to have to change a nappy! It meant one of the antibiotics was working, his bowel was working again.”
“Tests confirmed he had E.coli sepsis, meningitis. He remained on IV antibiotics for three weeks, so we lived on the children’s ward because he had to have them in the middle of the night. He improved almost as quickly as he’d become ill. However, getting the antibiotics into his little veins proved problematic and traumatic at times. He was dis- charged on the day he turned six weeks old.”
Despite being so young it seemed clear that Theo was pleased to be on the mend and he made his pleasure known.
“He had his first-ever smile the day after the antibiotics,” said Catherine.
“That was lovely to see because he showed that his brain was fine because it is hard to tell when they are a baby.”
Meningitis can have serious long-term impacts on children, with some children