I thought my daughter was just joking when she said she couldn’t feel her legs – then my world came crashing down

A MUM thought her daughter was only joking when she said she couldn’t feel her legs – but the reality was terrifying.

Debbie Picken, from Bath, has described the horrifying events in May 2017 when her four-year-old daughter Clover fell ill with a mystery virus.

At first, it seemed like she had the flu.

However, just a week after her symptoms began, she began to lose feeling in her legs and feet.

Debbie rushed her to the hospital where, by process of elimination, Clover was eventually diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome.

What followed were many sleepless nights, a lengthy hospital stay and months of physiotherapy to get the tot back on her feet.

Now five years on, Debbie looked back on that terrifying summer.

"In May 2017, she had flu-like symptoms for around a week and then didn’t feel any better. I ended up getting her seen by the out of hours doctor at the hospital a few days later, as it was a bank holiday, and there was a confirmed case of scarlet fever at her nursery, and she had developed a small rash on her chin.

“The doctor said it was a virus, but not scarlet fever and so we went home with instructions to give her Calpol.

"That same day but in the evening, I took her back to the hospital as she suddenly developed a cough which wouldn’t even allow her to pause for breath.

“Her vital signs were checked and I was advised to just let the cough run its course, so I took her home at 2am when it eventually stopped," Debbie explained.

Over the next few days, she expected Clover to recover.

However, she continued to suffer from fatigue and spent most of her time asleep on the floor, in between short periods of play.

When, after a week and the four-year-old was no better, Debbie noticed that Clover was falling over more often and had developed a limp, so she took her back to the GP.