Baby girl dies after a common cold develops into deadly sepsis
A BABY girl has died after catching a cold - when the common bug turned into a deadly infection.
Emilie O'Connor's parents had no idea her little "grunts" were a sign of killer sepsis.
The ten-month-old had already cheated death once, in her short life.
She was born with exomphalos meaning her liver, intestines and part of her stomach were on the outside of her body.
It's rare, affecting about one in 5,000 pregnancies.
Little Emilie survived against the odds, only to catch a cold months later.
Mum Margaret O’Connor, 38, said: “We weren’t sure if she was going to survive exomphalos at birth, but she did.
“In February 2017 she developed a cold and we thought she would be fine. She just needed a few days to get over it.
“Then she started vomiting and was making grunting noises.
"It never crossed my mind that this would kill her, until I saw doctors trying to resuscitate her in hospital.”
At her 12-week scan, Margaret and her joiner husband Gary, 49, were told Emilie had exomphalos.
“We met with consultants at 35 weeks and they told us that, hopefully, they would be able to operate, and she would be ok,” Margaret, from Craigavon in Northern Ireland said.
But she was too small to operate on and doctors told the couple they would have to wait until she was about a year old – although she would be able to survive with her organs on the outside protected by dressings, until her skin grew over it.
She developed a cold and we thought she would be fine. She just needed a few days to get over it
Mum Margaret O'Connor
Margaret, who is also mum to Daniel, 14, Shayne, 12 and Calum, nine, said: “She did take a turn for the worse at two weeks old.
“She had a group B strep infection and was going into septic shock, but doctors gave her antibiotics and she came round.
“We took her home at a month old and her condition never really affected her much.
“She was a really happy little baby. She loved clapping her hands and dancing to music. Even the night before she died, she was doing that.”
Then on February 4, 2017, Emilie developed a cold.
Her parents treated it with paracetamol and ibrupofen, but when she had not improved by the following Monday morning Margaret took her to her GP who advised it was just a viral infection.
Two days later Emilie developed a high temperature and started vomiting at about 10pm.
FIND OUT MORE What is sepsis, what are the symptoms and signs of the infection and how do you get it?
“She was unsettled and drowsy, but we thought it was because it was so late,” Margaret said.
“We managed to get her to bed about 11pm, but she was making grunting noises – it was a noise I had never heard her make before. It was just getting louder and louder.
“About 11.45pm, her temperature reached 38.9, so we decided to take her to A&E.
“When we got there, she was breathing quite fast, but they gave her Nurofen and her temperature started to come down. She seemed much brighter, so we went home.”
But just a few hours later, around 5am, Emilie started to vomit again and her parents became more concerned.
“It was a deep brown colour and I was worried she had a bowel obstruction, so we took her straight back to the hospital,” Margaret, a healthcare assistant said.
In the hours that followed, doctors investigated the possibility of a bowel obstruction – performing blood tests and x-rays.
That evening, when test results revealed bacteria in her blood, she was given antibiotics.
But just five minutes later Margaret noticed a mottled purple rash on her skin, which soon spread, and within minutes Emilie deteriorated so medics prepared to ventilate her and move her to a bigger hospital.
But before they had chance to arrange her transfer, Emilie suffered a cardiac arrest and died.
“They worked on her for a while, but they couldn’t bring her back,” Margaret said.
“We never realised how ill she was. We just walked back in from getting a few things for her transfer and they were resuscitating her.
“I nearly collapsed on the spot. We couldn’t believe how, in less than 24 hours, she had gone into hospital and hadn’t come out again.
“It never crossed my mind until the moment she had gone that this was something that would kill her.
“She was a miracle baby and she had defied the odds all along. It’s been completely heartbreaking for us all.”
After an investigation, Margaret and Gary were told the cause of their daughter’s death was sepsis – an abnormal response to an infection in the body.
“I had heard of sepsis, but I didn’t know much about the symptoms,” Margaret added.
“Obviously, she had fought septic shock at a few weeks old, so I knew about it, but I feel there isn’t much awareness of what you need to look out for.
“The symptoms are so similar to a cold or flu and if you don’t get treatment quickly, it’s too late.”
THE SIGNS YOUR CHILD HAS SEPSIS
Septicaemia, also known as sepsis, is a rare but serious complication of an infection that can quickly lead to multiple organ failure and death.
The blood poisoning occurs when large amounts of bacteria enter the bloodstream.
Bacterial meningitis can lead to septicaemia.
Sepsis can also be caused by viral or fungal infections, although bacterial infections are by far the most common cause.
Symptoms in children under 5
- your child may look mottled, bluish or pale
- is very lethargic and difficult to wake
- feels abnormally cold to touch
- is breathing very fast or having difficulty breathing
- has a rash that does not fade when you press on it
- is fitting or convulsing
- has a high temperature
- refusing to eat or drink
- has not had a wee for over 12 hours
Symptoms in older children and adults
- a high temperature
- chills and shivering
- fast heartbeat
- fast breathing
- feeling dizzy or faint
- confusion and disorientation
- diarrhoea
- nausea and vomiting
- slurred speech
- severe muscle pain
- breathlessness
- not urinating for a day
- cold, clammy and pale skin
- loss of consciousness
If any of these symptoms develop you should seek medical advice straight away.
MORE ON SEPSIS
Still coming to terms with Emilie’s death, her family are now keen to raise awareness of the symptoms of the condition.
“We still think about her every single day. Now we want to work to raise awareness of the symptoms to stop this happening to anyone else,” she added.
“We have been distributing leaflets in doctors’ surgeries and just trying to speak out so people know to ask, ‘Could it be sepsis?’ If it is identified and treated quickly, the chances of survival are much higher.
“We can’t bring Emilie back, but I hope this will keep her memory alive.”
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