Taj, Nowra, New South Wales
Taj Kay 8 Months Old 5 December 06
Taj had been up through out the night with a temperature. He woke for his usual morning feed at 7am but he seemed sleepy and as if he was coming down with something so I put him back to bed.
At about 9am I had this horrible feeling that something was wrong I went and checked on him and he was really burning up so I got him up and gave him some paracetamol and changed his nappy that’s when I saw the spots. There was about 10 of them on his belly they looked like light purple bruises about the size of 5 cents (we were told it did not look like the typical meningococcal rash) I didn’t know what they were but I felt sick when I saw them.
I went straight to our doctors we got in to see the Dr around 9.40am and in that time the rash had spread all over his body. That’s how quick it happens and Taj was constantly screaming I could not console him. Our doctor sent us straight up to the hospital they tried for 2 ½ hours to get a cannula in but his veins had shut down. They told us Taj would need to go to theatre to have a cannula inserted in to his skull or the bone in his leg and to have a lumper puncher.
He went to theatre at about 3pm, they came out and told us that our son had been intubated and ventilated and was in a medically induced coma they thought he had meningitis and would need to go to Sydney. It was about 6pm when the Child Flight NETS team arrived they had to stabilise Taj before they could leave with him it took a few hours we left at about 9pm we arrived at Westmead about 9:45pm it was a long day. Taj was in Paediatric ICU and stayed in a coma for two days we were told that Taj had meningitis meningococcal septicaemia.
We were lucky that we got it just in time, he was doing really well and was then moved to a ward on the 3rd day all up we were in hospital for 6 days.
We were told that Taj was a very lucky little boy and if he was treated an hour later he properly wouldn’t be here today. We are so grateful to all the medical staff that treated Taj they did an amazing job.
Taj is about to celebrate his 2nd birthday on the 1 April 08 and so far he has had no major medical issues since recovering from Meningococcal. He will need to undergo another hearing test at the age of four to confirm that there was no damage to his hearing. We realise how lucky we are to have a happy healthy little boy with all his fingers and toes unlike many other family’s who have been devastated by Meningococcal.
Before Taj had Meningococcal I was under the impression that when my Children were immunised for Meningococcal they were covered against the disease but what I was not told was THERE IS NO EFFECTIVE VACCINATION AGAINST MENINGOCOCCAL GROUP B, which is the strain Taj had.
I think they need to make it clear that you are not covered for all strains, we were just lucky that we caught it in time and got him medical help
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