“The pain never goes away. Life hasn't been the same since she’s been gone.”
Hayley and Wayne’s daughter Ava was just one when she fell ill and lost her life to meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia. She would have started secondary school this year.
To celebrate her life and her birthday the family are holding a Halloween party for Ava. Her mum, Hayley, from Bedworth in Warwickshire, tells us their story here:
“Ava was unsettled on Sunday 10th of November. She was cutting teeth, so we put it down to that.
“On the Monday evening she had a febrile convulsion, so we took her to the out of hours at the hospital and asked if it could be meningitis, to which the woman chuckled slightly and said, ‘no, there's no symptoms’ (which there were!)
“We stayed for an hour while waiting for the Calpol to work and then they sent us home. When we pulled up outside home she threw up again. We put her to bed, hoping she would be okay by the next day.
Doctor came out
“The next morning she threw up again. I called the doctors and asked if one of them could come out as I was six months pregnant and the pushchair was in the car (my husband Wayne was at work) and the town was blocked off for an armistice parade.
“The doctor came out, didn't even look at Ava and proceeded to have a go at me, saying I should register at a doctors I could get to (he was from our closest doctors).
“He checked Ava over, moved her from one end of the sofa to the other and she whimpered. She didn't respond, I asked again if it could be meningitis and he said ‘no, it’s a viral infection, she'll be fine in two or three days’. He was so rude.
Making noises
“Through the night Ava was making a few noises, which we thought was dreaming. We woke up and checked on her. Wayne said, ‘Get the Calpol’ and when I came back into the bedroom he was holding Ava and I just looked at him and said, ‘I need to call an ambulance don't I?’ He said, ‘Yes’.
“I went with Ava in the ambulance. They kept saying her name, nothing. Once we reached the hospital I just remember having a panic attack and they took me to a family room. Wayne arrived not long after and we were waiting in this room for what felt like a lifetime.
“I just remember a lady came and said, ‘Do you want to see her?’ I didn't understand why, it was like a blur. They knew she wasn't going to make it, they had two teams from Birmingham come because they couldn't get her vein.
They told us she was gone
“Then next thing there were a few people in the room and they told us she was gone. It just didn't feel real. We we're taken to another room and when we walked in Ava was lying there, they said you can lie next to her if you want and I just felt so scared.
“No parent should go through losing their child. I was six months pregnant and I believe the baby, Luisa, saved me. If I hadn’t been pregnant I don't know what I would have done. Nathan, Ava's big brother was just over 4 years old when she died. Luisa never met her big sister.
“The pain never goes away. She would have started secondary school this September and that’s been hard. We miss her so much. Life hasn't been the same since she’s been gone. Since she passed we have suffered with depression, anxiety and I have PTSD.
“It's her 12th birthday on 29th October. We are going to have a Halloween party for her and fireworks. We want to celebrate our precious baby girl.”
