Our Story - Page 2
The Hospital decided to keep Joe in for observation. Joe was treated for a non-descript
viral infection of the respiratory tract. A couple of weeks passed in hospital and
his bloods and chest were now fine, but he still had a fever. As Joe relied completely
on us, We noticed things that most people would dismiss.
Joe had developed red pin prick marks on his legs, doctors decided to start him
on Meripenem antibiotic to "kill all bugs"! They also decided to increase
his Topiramate as he was on a small dose. Two days later, the hospital thought he
had chicken pox, as a blister had developed on his neck and his forehead. This made
sense as he had been miserable for 3 weeks, the right incubation period for Chickenpox.
As Joe had special needs, they moved him into isolation.
As the day progressed Joe deteriorated fast, his little mouth was black with ulcers,
his hands, feet, neck and face covered in blisters. Around midnight a doctor saw
Joe, she thought he may have Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease and Chickenpox, as it
was the weekend, however they would wait until Monday to aspirate a blister to confirm
the infection.
The following morning Joe was very ill. I couldn’t get a doctor to see him as they
were doing their rounds. It was obvious something very serious was happening. My
husband and daughter arrived and were horrified. Joe's heart rate then became
very erratic.
At this point everything became a blur Joe was taken to HDU, put on morphine and
struggled to breathe.
We were told Joe could die, amazingly, he carried on. Weeks of pain, creaming his
little burnt body and praying followed. Then in July he seemed to be improving.
His skin started to heal and we started to wean him off morphine. Megan-Lily celebrated
her 5th birthday at his side, things seemed good. We then were told he had pneumonia
but antibiotics had been started so we were not to worry.
The next day Joe had a trickle of blood from his mouth, his finger and toe nails
looked like they had dirt under them. We were told that Joe had Gram negative Sepsis,
total organ failure and internal bleeding. We were all told to say goodbye, he really
couldn’t pull through as nothing else could go wrong.
Joe received fantastic medical care at The Royal Cornwall Hospital and The Bristol
Children's Hospital.