Mum’s heartfelt warning after baby girl ‘died for three minutes’ due to ‘cold’ that turned out to be a potentially deadly infection
Little Sophia Small had been sneezing and coughing for several days before she stopped breathing one night in September
A MUM has issued a heartfelt warning to other parents to ‘get their baby checked’ after her five-week-old daughter’s “cold” turned out to be a potentially deadly infection.
Little Sophia Small, now four months old, "died for three minutes" after suffering cold-like symptoms for several days.
Tests later showed that the tiny girl had bronchiolitis - a common respiratory infection that affects children under two.
Her mum, Charmaine Schneider, is also calling on all parents to learn CPR as her daughter “wouldn’t be here right now” if it wasn’t for her partner, Sam Small, resuscitating their little girl.
Sophia had been sneezing and coughing for several days before she stopped breathing one night in September.
“Doctors brushed it off as a normal cold but it turned out she actually had bronchiolitis and she nearly died,” Charmaine, 23, said.
“She had started sneezing and coughing a few days beforehand so I rang the doctor and they said that it was probably just a common cold and she will be fine.
“A few days later her symptoms hadn’t improved.”
Taking the doctor’s advice and thinking it would go away on its own Charmaine, from Fareham in Portsmouth, kept a close eye on her little girl who slept in a cot next to her bed.
“She was sleeping next to me in her crib and she started making noises and I thought she was trying to be sick,” she added.
“As I looked at her there was a little bit of sick coming out of her mouth so I thought ‘oh I’ll just pick her up and wind her and put her back down’.
“It wasn’t until I got out of bed and went to her crib that I realised something was wrong because her fists were clenched and her back was arched.
“Mother’s instinct kicked in a bit and I started whacking her back and my partner heard and woke up.
“He took her and put her onto her front and kept whacking her back saying ‘c’mon baby girl, just keep breathing’.
“You could hear her gasping for air.”
Desperate Charmaine ran out of the bedroom to phone for an ambulance.
When she returned to the room her daughter had turned blue.
“I looked at my daughter and I realised she was bright blue in the face, she was not breathing at all,” Charmaine recalled.
“I walked back into the room and saw her dad giving her CPR on the floor.
“She stopped breathing for three minutes and if it wasn’t for her dad my daughter wouldn’t be here right now.
“The hospital told us she had basically died for three minutes.”
A COMMON RESPIRATORY INFECTION THAT AFFECTS CHILDREN UNDER TWO
Bronchiolitis is a common infection that affects children under two.
Symptoms:
The early symptoms are similar to that of a common cold, like a runny nose and a cough, making it easy to mistake.
Once the symptoms appear they later develop into a fever, difficulty feeding and rapid breathing.
Parents should look out for:
- a rasping or persistent dry cough
- rapid or noisy breathing or wheezing
- brief pauses in their breathing
- feeding less
- having fewer wet nappies
- vomiting after feeding
- irritability
Cause:
It is caused by a virus called the respiratory syncytial virus, which is spread through tiny droplets from someone's sneeze or cough.
The infection causes the smallest airways in the lung to become inflamed.
This inflammation reduces the amount of air that can enter the lungs.
Around one in three children are affected by the virus during their first year.
Treatment:
There is no medication that can kill the virus but the infection usually clears on its own within two weeks.
If your child has bronchiolitis you should make sure they drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration and you can give them paracetamol or ibuprofen to ease their symptoms.
A small amount of babies will need hospital treatment, so if your child's symptoms don't start to ease within a week you should speak to a GP.
Tiny Sophia was kept in Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth for five days and closely monitored.
She was put under an incubator to raise her body temperature, put on oxygen and given a feeding tube.
Charmaine said the only reason Sophia is still with them is because her partner was able to perform CPR.
She is urging parents to not only know the signs of bronchiolitis but to also learn essential first aid that could save their child’s life.
“Some parents may brush it [bronchiolitis] off as a cold but this time of year they really, really need to get their baby checked,” she said.
“I think CPR training should be offered to any parent with a newborn.
MORE ON PARENTING ADVICE
“We didn’t have a clue what to do but luckily a paramedic on the phone was able to run my partner through what to do.
“It is the most vital thing to learn as a parent – God forbid you ever have to do it.
“Since this happened to my daughter all of our family has had CPR training.
“If it wasn’t for him [my partner] my daughter wouldn’t be here right now, I am forever grateful to him for saving her life.”
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