The news that followed devastated her and her husband – baby George had contracted e-coli meningitis.
Fortunately, baby George was lucky. Ruth recalls the news that changed her life.
“On 6th October 2014, after a very difficult and exhausting three day labour, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, George, with my husband and mum by my side. I had a difficult delivery after being been induced and had developed an infection during labour, so the paediatric team decided to do observations on George for the first 12 hours to make sure he was okay.
We were moved on to a postnatal ward where I tried to get to grips with having a new baby and George passed his observations with flying colours! We had lots of visitors on our first day and George even managed a little sleep.“
Worrying Symptoms
“When he was 24 hours old I noticed he was very warm. All the other babies on the ward were wrapped up and it concerned me that George was just in a vest and seemed quite hot! I pointed this out to the midwife on duty but she reassured me he was fine.
The following morning I was due to go home – my husband cleaned the house, had a big bunch of flowers at the ready and we were both excited to be leaving the hospital. We just had to have a check with the paediatrician before we could be discharged.
I wanted to make 100% sure everything was okay before we left, so I mentioned to the paediatrician that George was still quite warm. She thought he was fine but about 30 minutes later she came back and said she would take his temperature.”
Devastating news
“George’s temperature was high, so they decided to do a blood test. This very quickly led to a lumbar puncture. I remember the moment the consultant came to visit us to tell us George had meningitis like it was yesterday.
He was taken to the NICU and immediately given antibiotics while they tried to determine what type it was. After a few days of tests, they discovered he had e-coli bacteria. My husband and I were absolutely distraught!”
Recovery
“Luckily doctors discovered what type of meningitis George had very quickly. They managed to treat it with the best antibiotics they could and we spent another two and a half weeks in hospital with George, receiving antibiotics twice a day.
The day we came home was amazing - I didn’t look back as we left the hospital! We are so lucky to have brought George home. We are still regularly seeing a consultant to check on his development but at the moment he is doing absolutely brilliantly and is our little superstar.
Reading stories like George’s online has really helped and provided us with so much support .We are planning a fundraising tea party as Meningitis Now is such an important charity which is really close to our hearts.”
