It was when Eabha slept for 20 hours that the alarm bells began ringing in my head. She was just four months old. Normally she’d have her regular naps in the day and then her night sleep from 11pm until 9am.
This was different.
She just didn’t want to wake up in the morning. She wanted to sleep. She woke for her bottle and went straight back to sleep again.
When my daughter first fell unwell, I had thought she was teething. Then, when she started to get an upset stomach and was vomiting, I thought it could have been a stomach bug.
She’s usually such a happy little baby but she was very cranky and wouldn’t snap out of it, which made me realise something was wasn’t quite right.
It was her lengthy sleep that gave me flashbacks to those heartbreaking scenes of young Jack Webster in Corrie over the summer. I never miss an episode and vividly remembered watching the soap after Jack grazed his knee playing football.
After his accident, Jack kept complaining about feeling unwell and being tired. His sister Sophie was ignoring all the symptoms.
Jack was diagnosed with sepsis and had his leg amputated. The scenes were upsetting to watch.
To my horror, I began to fear my baby had the same condition.
We went to see her gran the next day and Eabha was very pale, another sign of sepsis. I knew I had to act, so I rushed her to hospital. They sent us down to the children’s A&E department.
At first, it was all quite calm while we were waiting but the minute they saw her, everyone jumped. It went from zero to 10 in the space of 15 minutes.
At first, staff thought it could be meningitis, which was really scary. They gave her a urine test by putting a pad in her nappy, which revealed she had a urine infection.
After they got the test results back, they seemed to go mad.
There was a small indication meningitis bacteria was present and they told me even though they didn’t know it was meningitis, they had to treat it because otherwise it would be too late.
I couldn’t even stay when they were injecting her with lifesaving medication. I had to get her aunty to hold her, it was that horrible. Eventually they were able put all of Eabha’s symptoms together and we were told she had sepsis.
And the first thing I thought of was Jack in Corrie having his leg amputated. I feared if my daughter survived the same thing would happen to her.
But thankfully she made a full recovery and my partner Adam and I were able to take her home after three days at Craigavon Area Hospital. I couldn’t be more grateful that I had watched Corrie’s sepsis storyline. I’m so relieved that Adam and I love it and we rarely miss an episode.
I had even done a bit of research into sepsis after watching Jack’s emotional scenes – I’d been reading up on the condition purely out of interest.
If I hadn’t seen the plot, I honestly don’t know what would have happened.
I’m sure I would have taken Eabha into hospital to get checked but recognising the symptoms were the same as Jack’s made me get her there extra quickly.
I’m now looking to raise as much awareness of sepsis as possible in the hope Eabha’s story will help other new parents spot those warning signs.
Adam and I had no idea just how common the condition is and that alone is really quite frightening, I think.
Children as young as Eabha are not able to talk and say how they feel and they rely so much on their parents to be as vigilant as possible and pick up on symptoms.
If Eabha’s story can help at least one parent recognise the warning signs of sepsis – and they take their child to hospital like we did and they’re saved – we would be so happy to have helped them.