Joshua, now three years old, was only 11 days old when he contracted sepsis, mum Chloe shares his story.

Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection. It happens when your immune system overreacts to an infection and starts to damage your body’s own tissues and organs.

In March 2019, when my son Joshua was 11 days old, I had a severe abscess to the leg. I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled later for that day to see what was going on. I experienced a high temperature, was rather lethargic, had no energy and was feeling as though I was going to die. I remember my partner having to push me in a stroller to the doctors later that day with me holding our newborn son due to the severe pain I was in.

On arrival at the doctors, I was seen almost immediately. The doctor diagnosed me with having an abscess and wanted me to be seen at Whiston A&E hospital for sepsis myself.

Whilst leaving the doctors, out of routine, my partner Teejay checked that Joshua was ok in his pram, making sure he was still breathing which I’m sure is the norm for most parents. This is when our entire world was completely shattered, even more so, destroyed.

Joshua was blue. We immediately took him out of the pram and ran straight back into the doctor’s surgery (Windermere Medical Centre) where the reception staff told us to go straight through to the doctor’s room where CPR immediately began. Our son was placed on oxygen whilst an ambulance was dispatched as a Cardiac Arrest Category 1 call. I remember just sitting there with my head in my hands, distressed, thinking that my son was going to die right in front of me. Joshua’s grandad, Steven Hughes, rushed to the surgery but he had to leave the doctor’s room, the atmosphere was just unbearable. Seeing our son laid on concrete flooring receiving CPR was not something easily witnessed.

Joshua eventually came around not long before the ambulance arrived. We were blue-lighted to Whiston Hospital where nurses and doctors believed Joshua to have “choked on milk”. After being seen, they wanted to discharge Joshua under our watchful eye but my partner insisted they checked him again as he had a new visual rash on his body. Whilst being checked over, Joshua stopped breathing again. We were taken to a high alert room where Joshua was placed on assisted breathing with so many cannulas coming out of his tiny body.

I was distraught. I couldn’t even bare to think about going upstairs to the ward to get myself checked whilst my son was near enough dying next to me…

Once stabilised, Joshua was placed in 24 hour intensive care and he was not allowed to feed. As he was a newborn, you can only begin to imagine how distressing this was for us as parents. He underwent a brain scan, X-rays, heart scans and a lumber puncture which we were not allowed to attend due to it “not being a nice sight”.

After a week of antibiotics and round the clock care, Joshua began to improve steadily.

I had gained a diagnosis of a severe abscess and I needed antibiotics through the vein. I was admitted to hospital alongside my son for three days. Once discharged, I went downstairs to be with my son for a further four days.

Joshua experienced cold and flu symptoms in the events leading up to his diagnoses of sepsis. With already a one year old daughter, Alexis, at home we had thought it was nothing more than a slight bug that was going around due to Alexis having a snuffly nose and a cough.

The signs and symptoms of sepsis can vary in so many people. With babies, it’s hard to tell what’s normal and what’s abnormal, but we insist on going with your gut! With Joshua, his signs of sepsis came from cold and flu symptoms. He did not have a high temperature nor was he displaying any abnormal symptoms due to newborns being rather lazy anyway.

Joshua is now three years old and is thriving in life. He’s a happy, content and a very cheeky little boy with more than the world ahead of him. It’s scary to think that if we were not at the doctor’s surgery at that point in time, we could have lost our son.

I’m sharing Joshua’s story with the charity Sepsis Research FEAT to help bring awareness to the signs and symptoms of sepsis in newborn babies. As newborns are generally sleepy and unable to communicate, it’s so difficult to identify the signs.

I want to share the story of Joshua battling with sepsis at 11 days old to help others learn about the signs and symptoms of sepsis in babies which are rarely ever talked about. Please, go with your gut. Babies are so unpredictable and it can quickly turn into a situation of life and death.