“On 2 October 2018, the world welcomed our beautiful baby boy, Logan, 7lbs 10oz of absolute perfection.
It wasn’t the most straightforward labour but we had our boy and he was happy and healthy.
“Unfortunately that wasn’t for long; on 9 October I noticed a change in him, he was very irritable and seemed to flinch when he was being held. I noticed his belly button seemed slightly inflamed so I called 111 and was given an appointment for him to be checked. He was checked over by 2 GPs and I was told he was fine.
“The next day, his symptoms continued to develop, I noticed the top of his head (his fontanelle) was bulging. Thinking about it now this had actually been like this for a few days and my partner had mentioned it to me. Logan was born using the Ventouse method and I just assumed it was due to that. Again he was irritable and cried when he was being held.
I instinctively knew something was wrong
“At 4am on 11 October I was sat on the sofa with my 9 day old baby, he was crying and had a temperature of 39.1, and I knew something was wrong. I called 111 again, explained his symptoms and was told a GP would call me back. After 2 hours a doctor called asking "How is he now?" by this point he had fallen asleep on my chest but still seemed hot. Instinctively I just knew that Logan wasn’t himself and I mentioned this to the doctor. His response, which continues to trouble me, was "He’s 9 days old, how can you know what 'himself' is".
“I was told to remove some of Logan’s clothes and keep an eye on him. In hindsight I knew this wasn’t right - I just knew he needed medical attention, but like any first-time mum I thought the doctor knew best. Logan was refusing food. I just knew he needed to be seen and took Logan to A&E where, after being examined by a paediatrician, we were told that he would be staying in for at least one night to be observed and to have tests done.
“Watching my 9 day old baby be poked and prodded with needles and cannulas was absolutely heart-breaking. Logan’s veins were so tiny, 4 doctors struggled to get blood from him. Whilst he cried initially during this examination, he soon became listless and lethargic. I knew the actions being taken were in the best interests of Logan, but standing there next to him with tears in his eyes is the hardest thing I have ever done.
“Despite eventually having taken bloods and a cannula secured doctors still couldn’t diagnose the cause of his high temperature, prompting the use of antibiotics to buy time for the test results to be returned.
“After about 4 hours in A&E we were moved to an isolated side room on the children’s ward with a single bed for me and a little plastic cot for Logan. He was still refusing feeds so was placed on a drip to keep him hydrated and I was told by a paediatrician that they would need to perform a lumbar puncture, a large needle into Logan’s spine to take fluid from his spinal cord for testing, which would take 24 hours. Needless to say, we went nowhere.
Fighting for his life
“On 12 October 2018, we received the devastating news that Logan’s spinal cord fluid had shown that he had bacterial meningitis. We were completely heartbroken, our tiny baby boy was literally fighting for his life.
Fit and well
“Over the next 2 weeks Logan was given intravenous antibiotics and showed enormous strength of character and that he was a real fighter. On 24 October 2018 our little man was finally discharged from hospital completely fit and well”.
