“Tyler was 6-months-old when she became very poorly very quickly.
"When we took her to our local walk-in centre they thought she had measles and sent us to the hospital.
“By the time we got there the rash had gone and they put it down to a viral infection. They sent us home saying if the rash comes back or her temperature goes up to bring her back in. We spent all that night with a very upset and cranky baby but as there was no rash and her temperature wasn't that high we didn't know what to do for the best.
Straight to A&E
“We stayed at home and the next day she became more lethargic and not responding or eating and crying every time we picked her up. I took her to see our GP who sent us straight to A&E. He never told me he thought it was meningitis and I hadn’t really heard much about it then.
“When we arrived at hospital everything happened so fast. We had lots of nurses and doctors all around us trying to get needles into her arms. In the end they had to drill into her bone in her leg as all her veins and organs were shutting down. They told us if we had arrived 30 minutes later Tyler would have died. We spent a few weeks in the HDU unit before being transferred to another ward.
Now a healthy 13-year-old
“If it wasn't for the quick thinking of our GP who used to be a paediatrician I don't think we would have our little girl, who is now a healthy 13-year-old. We are very lucky as Tyler is fine now and doesn't seem to have any lasting effects from meningitis, except I think she may have some emotional issues. We don't know whether she would have been like this if she had never been poorly.”
