My warning to all parents as my son, 1, faces losing his fingers and toes after waking up with a horror rash
A TODDLER could lose his fingertips and toes after waking up with a rash, his mum warned.
Teddie Walne, 17 months, is set to lose five of each as a result of blood poisoning, caused by meningitis.
He has also been in intensive care, put into a coma and given paralysis meds while being in a freezer jacket to cool his temperature.
And doctors told mum Zoe, 37, they had no time to wait for pain relief to kick in before drilling into his shin bones when he arrived at hospital with the rash.
It started when he woke up with a red blotch on his head, which spread to his tummy just hours later on Easter Sunday.
Zoe phoned 111 and was told to keep an eye on it while waiting for a call back within two hours.
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She drove to her mum’s but by the time she arrived the blotches had turned purple like bruises and she decided to call back.
Paramedics told them he had suspected meningitis. Doctors said she saved his life by not waiting.
Stay-at-home mum–of-four Zoe, of Burnley, Lancashire, he had been a “normal energetic and mischievous” toddler before the blotch.
She told the : “It went downhill fast from there. When we got to the hospital the doctor said that is text book meningitis rash."
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They were rushing around him and she was told to call her partner Duncan Stewart, 39, a self-employed gardener.
She added: "I was starting to get scared. They said it was going to be really unpleasant because they didn't have time to wait for the pain relief to kick in and they needed to drill into his shin bones.
"He was starting to bleed from his mouth and his nose, it was just terrifying.";
Teddie showed signs of breathing on his own after seven days and got stronger with medications.
Doctors are now testing for any affected brain functions from when his body was starved of oxygen and blood.
And plastic surgeons will try to heal huge blisters which developed where his rash was.
Zoe said: "I don't think I have ever prayed as much in my life.
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"He has been such a fighter through it all. I keep thanking my lucky stars that he's here.
"The doctors said to me 'you need to realise you saved his life, because if you had waited for the doctor to ring you back Teddie wouldn't be here now'."
