We are walking Lily's 13 mile journey from Barnet General Hospital to Great Ormond Street Hospital which is the journey Lily had to take sedated and ventilated in the CATS ambulance because her body was shutting down after she contracted Meningicocal Septacemia having being sent home hours before diagnosed with chickenpox.
We want to share our story as much as possible as we know we are incredibly lucky to have been given a seccond chance but unfortunatley that isn't always the case.
Meningitis kills, its important to know the signs which can very easily be mistaken for viral infections!
Lily was a normal happy & healthy baby before she began:
1. Breathing with a moan
2. High Tempreture
3. Shiverring
We decided to take her to the nearest A&E as a precaution. On arrival Lily was given parecetemol where her tempreture came down, during our time at A&E Lily developed more symptoms:
4.Sickness
5. Diarrhoea
6. Vacant in her eyes
7. Not eating/drinking
8. Pale mottled skin
9. Very small red spots (which did not disapear under pressure)
10. Unusual high pitch cry
Despite all of the above we were assured that Lily would not have menigitis after we persisted they tested her blood levels and were sent home having being told that she has a viral infection most likely to be chickenpox and were sent home at 3:30am after being told "to not be surprised if Lily is covered in sports in the morning".
By morning Lily had deterioted even more and her body was covered in what seemed like spots, we decided it would be a good idea to go to our GP for some advise as we weren't 100% certain that this would clear itself... while we were getting our stuff together Lily's rash was changing infront of our eyes - before we knew it she was covered head to toe in a horrible aggresive purple rash and seemed to be in & out of conciousness - it was at that stage we called an Ambulance.
On arrival the first responce took one quick look at Lily and called on his radio for 'A HOT ONE BACK UP IMMEDIATELY' we had no idea that he knew how serious things were and and that Lily was near death! It is with thanks to the precision timing and quick thinking of the ambulance crew that she made it to Barnet General where they were ready and waiting to treat Lily after recieveing a call from the ambulance crew, it was then clear that Lily was fighting for her life and they made the bold decision to sedate Lily and take over her breathing whilst waiting for Childrens Acute Transport service to transfer her to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
After 5 long days & nights and many set backs including breathing deteriation, blood in her chest and a blood clot Lily was eventually breathing for herself on the 5th day... No words will describe our feelings when we heard our baby cry for the fisrt time the seccond time around! Against all odds Lily was back home after 2 weeks full of smiles!
We are delighted to say that Lily made a full recovery and is enjoying being a toddler like every other child her age.
It is without doubt that we owe our lives to the rescue team who treated her and without them Lily would not be here today, we need your help to support them in saving lives, please give anything you can to sponsor us on this long journey!
