Written by Mathieu’s mother, Katie A.
It was 2015, and Mathieu was only 3 weeks old. One morning he woke up late, around 10 am. He seemed a little lethargic and not too interested in nursing, but overall fine, so we continued with our day. I was changing him in the afternoon, I noticed that he had a strange mottled look to his legs and his tummy seemed swollen. I found this odd but he still seemed OK.
In the evening he took a bath with his big brother and as I was drying him off he started to shiver I found this very odd as we were living in the UK at the time and it was April, so it was not particularly cold out. I dressed him, but had a feeling of unease, so I called the equivalent of the telehealth number in the UK for advice. My call was answered, I described his symptoms, and a car was despatched immediately to take Mathieu to the emergency room. He was assessed quickly by an emergency room doctor and then sent straight round to the paediatric ward.
Things seemed to happen very quickly thereafter. He was fully examined, his blood was taken and he was immediately started on intravenous broad-spectrum antibiotics and fluids. His diagnosis was ‘sepsis query cause’. His gut was showing signs of paralytic ileus (it wasn't working) and he was designated nil-by-mouth, meaning food and fluids were withheld. He had a nasogastric tube inserted into his nose, to drain the bile that was accumulating in his stomach. The next day he had a lumbar puncture procedure to test for meningitis, the inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Because he was so tiny the medical team were unable to obtain any fluid and the procedure had to be repeated the following day. It was successful, and he was found to have bacterial meningitis, which was the cause of the sepsis.
He continued to be treated with intravenous antibiotics. After 2 days his gut was working and the nasogastric tube was removed so he could feed again. He continued to improve day by day and was discharged home after 14 nights in hospital. The antibiotics continued for a few more days after that. He had a brain scan while in hospital which showed no obvious signs of damage and he has subsequently passed all his developmental milestones and hearing tests.
Today Mathieu is a happy, outgoing, and very busy 4 year old. My family and I will be forever grateful for the accurate assessment and prompt treatment of his condition. We are also grateful to the dozens of the medical staff who took great care looking after him and who supported us through a very difficult and stressful time.