Amelia Walkden's story

In August 2017 our 9 month old baby girl became critically ill with pneumococcal meningitis and septicaemia.

She was breaking her first tooth at the time so what we originally put down to being a bit out of sorts a day or two before soon took a serious and terrifying turn.

I took her to A and E when her symptoms escalated; temperature, vomiting, mottled skin, fast breathing, lethargic... classic red flag signs. However, we were sent home with antibiotics for a suspected ear infection. I was surprised but reassured that with having medication she would soon be on the mend either way.

At home over the coming hours her temperature continued to soar into the 40.0s and she’d stopped eating and drinking entirely, let alone take those necessary antibiotics. All she wanted to do was sleep. I could no longer encourage any normal response from her, she wouldn’t be held or comforted in any way. When I tried she made a sad little cry almost like a kitten mew. I’d never heard a sound like that from her before.

My instincts were screaming this was serious so I took the decision to go back to A and E where all hell broke loose. Within the hour she’d been diagnosed with sepsis and worse still meningitis was suspected to be behind it. Not every strain is vaccinated against apparently, nor do they all display that tell-tale rash. She quickly deteriorated. Her veins collapsed as her organs struggled and soon she was completely unconscious. They performed an intraosseous (drilled into the bone in both legs) to get vital drugs into her blood system. They then decided she was so unstable she needed to be put on a ventilator. She became unrecognisable through tubes and wires and pumped full of fluid to the point where she was horrifyingly swollen. There were so many doctors and nurses around her it was hard not to feel completely terrified. A specialist team then arrived to transfer her to Manchester Children’s Hospital Intensive Care Unit which were more equipped to deal with the severity of her illness.

The next few days were a blur of consultants, procedures and consent forms. Discussions of brain damage and fear of sepsis taking her limbs were of major concern if she pulled through. Once she became a bit more stable they tried to remove her from the ventilator but she didn’t respond. Worried, they put her back on it and said the next few hours were crucial. We were living a nightmare and pleading for her to keep on fighting, just to open her tiny swollen eyes. What was worse (if possible) was her medical team explaining they had only seen a handful of cases like hers. It would be a miracle if she walked away from this unscathed we realised. The lumbar puncture was performed, results began to filter back... pneumococcal meningitis was confirmed.