“We had been out shopping and Ellie had been fine in the morning.
When we returned home we left her asleep in her outdoor coat and she woke up very hot and irritable - I presumed because she had her coat on.
“As the day went on her temperature increased despite having calpol. She became very irritable, with high pitched screaming and then would fall to sleep quite quickly. This happened a few times in the day.
Screamed at the light
“Around 7pm I carried her into the bathroom where my son was taking a bath. She screamed out looking at the light and started having twitches.
“We immediately took her to A&E at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. After explaining the symptoms to reception we were called through straight away. The nurse asked if she had a rash. I said ‘no’ but within the half an hour since leaving our house she was covered in a rash. We were then being treated for suspected meningitis and bloods, cannulas and lumbar punctures happened.
“Ellie was very lucky, we caught it in time - even the doctors were so concerned. Ellie made a fantastic recovery. She was diagnosed with non-culture bacterial meningitis and now 15 months on after five days in hospital and seven days of iv antibiotics at home she is a very happy healthy toddler.”
