A mum has warned parents to be aware of the symptoms of a deadly infection after she believed her baby was suffering from a common cold.
Louise Keegan, 30, thought her six-week old daughter Ember was suffering from a typical virus in November 2022 and wasn’t too concerned about the baby’s irritablity and sniffles.
This persisted for a few days but one morning she noticed Ember had a developed a worrying cough so Louise and husband Matthew, 27, decided that they should get a second opinion.
The nearest hospital was 20 miles away from their home in Dalbeattie and they decided to phone their local GP and were given an appointment.
However, at the doctor’s, Ember became ‘unresponsive and her lips turned blue’ before she was rushed to Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and diagnosed with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Speaking to the Record, Louise explained: “We were sitting in the surgery with Ember on my lap when a man commented that she was fast asleep.
“I turned her around but quickly realised her lips were blue and she was unresponsive and I just went into shock.
“The doctor was amazing and came rushing out and put an oxygen mask on her and phoned an ambulance.
“We were whisked away to the hospital and I was petrified that my baby was going to die.
“We got to there and about 20 doctors and nurses were waiting and took us to a resuscitation room.
“One of them took Ember from my arms and placed her down on a bed and the rest of the medics just surrounded her and got to work.”
Mum-of-three Louise took a step back and prayed as they battled to save her baby’s life.
She continued: “It was so overwhelming and probably the worst moment of my life, but eventually some of the doctor’s started to back away and I knew that must be a positive sign.
“One of them told me they had stabilised her and that they were going to move her to a room in a ward upstairs.
“She was on an oxygen mask for a few days but the following day she was well enough to be taken home.
“Ember’s immune system was down for months afterwards. She is still suffering and anytime she picks up a viral infection her oxygen levels dip and we have had to take her to the hospital a number of times in the past year or so.”
Louise has been left deeply traumatised by the incident and says she panics every time Ember sneezes.
She was grieving at the time after losing a close family member and beats herself up about not noticing the symptoms sooner.
Now, Louise wants other parents to be aware of the symptoms and to take measures to stop their children spreading the contagious virus.
She added: “It is not just babies, small children are also at risk too. People just need to be aware of the symptoms and if they notice anything amiss then they shouldn’t send their children to school or nursery to help stop infections from spreading.
“Ember is a little bundle of energy and always having fun, but if could have been so different if we hadn’t got her to the hospital in time.”
The NHS say RSV symptoms can resemble a cold with some minor differences and typically appear a few days after infection. These include:
- Runny or blocked nose
- Cough
- Sneezing
- Fatigue
- Irritability in babies or reduced feeding in babies
However, if RSV develops into more serious illnesses, new symptoms may appear, such as worsening cough, shortness of breath, rapid breathing or long gaps between breaths, loss of appetite in adults or feeding difficulties in babies, noisy breathing or wheezing, and confusion in older adults.
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