My son was minutes from permanent brain damage after being struck by pneumonia amid outbreaks in UK, US and China

A TERRIFIED mum has shared how her son's "little cough" turned out to be the same pneumonia infection sweeping through China, the US and now the UK.

William McCarren, 14, was rushed to hospital after coming home from school clutching his chest and struggling to breathe.

His mum Mollee Campbell initially thought her boy might have Covid.

But tests revealed that William had mycoplasma pneumonia - the same illness that's seen hospitals in Northern China teeming with sick children and a return of masks and social distancing in a chilling echo of lockdown measures enforced during the pandemic.

Cases of the respiratory infection - known as 'white lung syndrome' - have spiked in other parts of the world too, including in Ohio, where Mollee and her son William live.

Meanwhile, a study revealed that as many as 49 children in Wales and 12 in England fell ill with mycoplasma pneumonia between April and September, which experts confirmed to be an unusually high number of cases.

A surge in cases of pneumonia has also been recorded in countries including Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Singapore.

Mollee told that she wasn't too worried by William's "little cough" at first as her younger daughter also had an upper respiratory tract infection at the time.

She decided to wait a day or two before seeing a doctor, to monitor if the symptoms got worse.

But Mollee knew something was wrong when he came home from school in late November "crying and grabbing his chest".

He was coughing up mucus and barely able to breathe.

[Doctors] said that if [his blood oxygen levels] went much lower it could have caused brain damage in some way

Mollee

"He was very pale and he could barely stay awake, he was acting like he was going to pass out," she recalled.

The mum rushed William to A&E, where tests showed his blood oxygen levels to be dangerously low.

While a healthy reading would be between 95 and 100 per cent, the teenager's levels had dipped all the way to 75 per cent.

"They said that if he went much lower it could have caused brain damage in some way," Mollee said.

It's considered to be life threatening if blood oxygen levels fall to 70 per cent.

Doctors heard a rattling sound when listening to William's breathing and an X-ray revealed both his lungs to be full of fluid.

After being moved to a children's hospital in the area, paediatricians told Mollee that her son had mycoplasma pneumoniae.

It's also referred to as 'walking pneumonia' and it affects both lungs rather than one, which is typically seen with other pneumonia illnesses.

This kind of pneumonia is usually mild, but doctors told Mollee her son could have suffered brain damage from perilously low levels of oxygen if she hadn't brought him in sooner.

Mollee recalled crying incessantly and panicking at hearing this, as neither of her children had gone through a serious illness before that.

She added that William was also "extremely scarred".

The 14-year-old has now been discharged from hospital after seeing his oxygen levels rise to about 90 per cent.

Mollee said the whole floor William was on "was nothing but children with pneumonia".

She urged other parents to call a doctor or get their kids urgent help for symptoms that don't seem normal, "even if it is just a cough".

What is mycoplasma pneumonia?

Mycoplasma pneumonia is a bacterial infection that normally causes a mild flu-like illness and will typically clear up on its own.

It's thought to be a milder form of of viral or bacterial pneumonia, but its symptoms may last longer.

Symptoms usually include a fever, cough, bronchitis, sore throat, headache and tiredness.

In some cases, it can cause more severe illness, which can require a course of antibiotics, and can, in some cases, hospitalisation.

With a rise of cases seen in the UK, Professor Francois Balloux, of the UCL Genetics Institute, told The Sun that "mycoplasma pneumoniae infections happen all year round".

"It peaks every winter, and epidemic occurs every four years or so," he added.

With the UK outbreak happening four years ago during the winter of 2019/2020, Professor Balloux said "it's highly likely that this winter will see a peak in mycoplasma pneumoniae infection across the UK".

In China, officials have denied suggestions that the outbreak is down to a new virus, with experts insisting existing bacterial infections and viruses are likely to blame.

The said mycoplasma pneumonia is usually caused by certain moulds, viruses or bacteria.

Meanwhile, the (CDC) said bacteria causing the illness tends to spread 'small respiratory droplets' released by coughs and sneezes.