and this post is about what has happened since we’ve been home.
We arrived home on the Saturday night and on Sunday night DD1 let me know that her little girl had a cough and was coughing until she vomited. The little one was taken to the doctors on the Monday and she was diagnosed with a virus probably caused by teething. The doctor apparently wasn’t perturbed that C’s temperature was 39.9. DH and I visited them on Monday night and C was a bit grizzly and wouldn’t eat. But at 2am Monday morning she woke up crying and was inconsolable.
Our son in law once again took her to the doctor and this time the appointment was with the family’s regular GP who immediately diagnosed pneumonia and organised an ambulance to take C to their local hospital. This hospital confirmed the diagnosis of pneumonia and X-rays showed a partially collapsed lung with fluid.
The local hospital did not have the paediatric specialists that were required so C was transported to the large children’s hospital here in Brisbane. On arrival she suffered cardiac arrest but was resuscitated.
Within hours she was again heading towards cardiac arrest and the decision was made to connect her to a life support machine known as ECMO. This requires surgery to open the chest and connect the heart and lungs to the machine. This was to save her life. The medical team met with the family late Tuesday night to explain the procedures.
That was then they broke the news to us that C had developed sepsis. Google it, it is scary. I was the only one in the family who knew about sepsis; my favourite nurse in Call the Midwife died from sepsis. In C’s case hers developed in the fluid in the lung.
While the ECMO kept her alive, the doctors could concentrate on wiping out the sepsis and the little one was put into an induced coma. The particular bacterium causing the sepsis was identified and so they knew exactly what antibiotics to target the infection with. The sepsis has now been defeated and C came off life support on Sunday.
It has been a nightmare as you can imagine. The family have all pulled together to help DD1 and her husband.
The medical team are gradually changing the sedation ready to eventually bring her back to full consciousness. The sepsis damaged the circulation in her left leg, amongst other damage, and the doctors have warned the family that it is a 90% chance that C will lose the leg. We have an extremely long road to travel with our little girl and her poor parents.
I took this photo yesterday when I was sitting with her. She is well covered up as she is on dialysis until her kidneys start to function again and apparently people get cold during dialysis.
The staff asked my daughter to bring in loved items so the baby blankie that I made her last year when she was born, is folded ready for when she’s conscious.
We’ve been encouraged from when she was in the induced coma to talk to her, sing to her, touch her and read to her. I do that each day. I’ve been telling her funny stories about her mummy when she was a little girl. After all, that’s what grandmas do 😉😍.
And this was today’s photo.
With the change in sedation, she had been opening her eyes and today she looked straight at me for a few seconds but I don’t think she really took in who I was. Poor little love. 😞
With the change in sedation, she had been opening her eyes and today she looked straight at me for a few seconds but I don’t think she really took in who I was. Poor little love. 😞
