Meningitis in your words

Daniel Bally's story

Location: England
Categories: Escherichia coli (E. Coli)
Age: Baby 0-1
Relationship: Parent
Outcome: Recovery with after effects
After effects: Other

We were so delighted to have our baby boy Daniel born on 30th November 2010. He was a big boy at 9lb 9oz and breastfed well from the beginning.

He seemed OK but in the morning following delivery a paediatrician came to tell me his temperature had risen and they were giving him a week’s course of antibiotics, I was not to worry and it was quite normal for them to treat an infection without knowing what it was. He made a full recovery and we were discharged a week later.

By two months Daniel had a bad bout of bronchiolitis, but after a couple of weeks seemed well, although I was not convinced.

"In hindsight I should've gone to the GP but we seemed to always be there"

I carried on as normal until March, when one day he seemed really off, wouldn't feed and had a high temperature of 38.5 degrees. My mother-in-law was with us all day and told me she didn't like the look of him and started to dab him with wet towels. In hindsight I should've gone to the GP but we seemed to always be there, I wanted to see if he got better.

As the day went on his temperature dropped and he slept most of the day so after 8pm I decided to take him to bed with me. My sister rung me at 10pm to see how he was, feeling he was cool, I said I thought he was over the worst. How wrong I was.

At midnight he awoke with breathing grunting sounds. I immediately picked him up put him over my shoulder. As I had been breastfeeding him I initially thought he was choking on milk so I ran downstairs to my husband Richard shouting “there's something wrong with Daniel”. It was then I saw him turn blue and Richard yelled "ring an ambulance".

He had tachycardia and a temperature of 40.3 and after a lumbar puncture we were given the awful news he had E Coli meningitis with septicaemia. He was in hospital for ten days on antibiotics and in day care for a further 11 days.

Thankfully he seems to have made a full recovery although he does seem to catch bugs etc more easily than my other two children did. I thank God for Meningitis Research Foundation and their befriending; after I spoke to another member I was so relieved to find the feelings and anxieties I was having were normal.

CAROL BALLY
NOVEMBER 2011