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Caleb P’s story

3rd June 2018

Louise’s young son Caleb fell ill with pneumococcal meningitis when he was seven-months-old in April 2017. Fortunately he received prompt treatment and has gone on to make a good recovery. Louise, from Taunton in Somerset, recounts their experience here

Caleb P’s story

“My beautiful little boy Caleb was sick on the Saturday night at about 9pm. It was so unlike him as he was never a sickly baby.

“I called 111 and they said to watch him and if anything changed in an hour to call again. Within 30 minutes he had been sick another two times. I called 111 back and because of his breathing, which was raspy, this triggered an ambulance.

Incredibly lucky

“I was incredibly lucky that this night there were two doctors on who spotted certain signs on Caleb and quickly took him into Resus. They tried to get antibiotics into him but he had started to get worse and his veins had started to shut down, so they had to drill into his shins to get the fluid into him. By 1am they had got this started and he spent the next 10 days in hospital and two weeks on antibiotics.

No after-effects

“A year later he is a happy, healthy beautiful 20-month- old with no after-effects at all. The hospital saved my son’s life that night and I will be forever grateful to them. It has made us all so much more aware of the illness and we all now talk about it to others so they are aware and can look out too.”

Caleb P’s story

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