Meningitis in your words

Emma Faye Wallgren's story

Location: England
Categories: GBS (Group B streptococcal)
Age: Baby 0-1
Relationship: Parent
Outcome: Bereavement

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Meningitis in your words
Emma Faye Wallgren

Our daughter was born one month early at a whopping ten pounds. She was healthy except for some serious jaundice that we addressed.

One day I noticed that she was not the right colour and even though she was usually excited to eat, she refused to nurse. My husband and I called her pedi and then rushed her to the children's hospital in the next town.

"We would never have ourselves or our children kept alive by machines."

When we got there we were not allowed to sit down, we immediately went to the back and Emma Faye was diagnosed within the hour via spinal tap. We were hopeful because her WBC numbers were very low meaning we caught it VERY quickly

She was admitted and did great the first couple of days. We never left her side, took turns sleeping with her, she was never alone.

We noticed that she was starting to have seizures and she went into a coma never to wake up again. My husband and I decided that we would never have ourselves or our children kept alive by machines. We just never knew it would be a decision we had to act upon so soon in our lives.

Emma Faye passed in our arms on September 25th, 2011. Since then, we have set up a memorial fund in her memory that raises money for the hospital that she passed in and for GBS research. We will be doing our first donation the 24th of January 2012.

JENNIFER WALLGREN
JANUARY 2012