Hi. My name is Kristine, and my daughter’s name is Ellie. This is our story.
It all began on July 17, 2014 at 7:32pm. After having two healthy boys we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl whom we named Ellie. I had an uneventful pregnancy until the end when I had a terrible cold at 38 weeks. I thought all it was, was a cold and it was brushed off by both myself and my obstetrician.
By the time I went into labour, my symptoms from the previous week had also disappeared. Ellie’s delivery was uneventful, and she seemed healthy upon initial examination. 3 hours post-delivery is when our lives changed. She had just come back to our room on the postpartum unit and began to have difficulty breathing and turn blue in my arms. Our nurse whisked her away directly to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) where she was resuscitated and put on a ventilator (CPAP). She was immediately placed on intravenous (IV) antibiotics, ultimately saving her life.
Ellie’s condition worsened overnight and by the next morning I also began to feel ill. I had severe abdominal pain and could not even walk over to the NICU to see my baby. At first it was chalked up to after pains from birth, but since I had delivered two other children prior to Ellie, I knew these weren’t just after pains. By lunchtime, I had a fever of 105 and was quickly started on an IV.
Shortly after that time, the pediatrician on call was in to let us now that Ellie was very sick. She had a blood infection caused from Group A Streptococcus, a type of bacteria responsible for strep throat, and needed to immediately be airlifted out to a larger center 3 hours away. She was quickly becoming septic, and it was thought that whatever Ellie had, I had also. The medical team was unsure if she would survive the flight, but Ellie was intubated and picked up by the NICU team from the Foothills hospital in Calgary. There was a period of about 6 hours before I could be transferred since there was only 1 plane available. Those were the most nerve-racking 6 hours of my life.
Ellie was diagnosed with neonatal septicemia and spent 19 days in the NICU, 9 of those being on a level 3. She had a blood transfusion, 8 lumbar punctures and was treated with ampicillin via a central catheter. We were told to prepare for the worst, and had a social work and a chaplain visit us. For the first 5 days I wasn’t even able to see her, as we were both on isolation. Our wonderful nurses would text pictures of her to each other so I could see her. The sight of her intubated and full of wires is something I will never forget. My 34th birthday present was that I was able to hold her for the first time since she stopped breathing in my arms, hours after she was born.
I was diagnosed with streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, which almost resulted in a hysterectomy. I was treated with penicillin, only to find out that I was severely allergic.
Sepsis robbed our entire family of the most precious time with our family of 5. Our young boys were left at home hours away, while their dad rushed by car to meet their sister when the plane arrived. Luckily our middle son was only 3 and does not have many memories of that time, but it has scarred our then 5-year-old to this day. Not only did they not know what was happening to their new baby sister, but they did not understand why their mom was so sick and not able to come home. This was the longest time ever that I was away from my boys.
From years of researching this illness, I have learned that most times, both mom and baby have been discharged and by then it is typically too late. We were one of the lucky ones. We were still in the hospital when we both fell ill. My dream is to instill proper education pre- and post-delivery, so that hospital staff and especially new mothers recognise the signs and symptoms of sepsis.