I thought one of my first posts should be about what led to Lauren being admitted to Alderhey Children's hospital. It's what everyone asks about.....did she seem very poorly? Had she been ill for a while? Scarily the answer to both of these was no.
Lauren was off school on Weds 4th Dec with standard cold/Flu symptoms, abit achy abit tired, nothing of concern. She was well enough to go into school on Thurs, although not 100%.
On Friday am I awoke at 5am to hear her being sick. I went to see her, cleaned it up (why do they always miss the toilet?) and put her back to bed with the requested hot water bottle. On Friday she stayed off school, her Dad was working from home. She spent the say watching Modern Family and moaning about the flavour of lucozade he had bought her.
I came home at 4pm, checked Lauren over, and although she was clearly poorly still it didn't seem more than a tummy bug, even through neurotic mother eyes! By 5.30 I was concerned about a couple of her symptoms, rapid breathing & confusion. I rang 111, no answer, rang the GP, no appointments, so decided to take her to A&E, fully expecting to be viewed as an overprotective mother.
A&E were amazing, the triage nurse suspected sepsis, she was given fluids and antibiotics then transferred to a nearby hospital with a pediatric dept. Her mental state seemed to be crashing and she was refusing, or fighting against, the treatment she was being given. The decision was made to sedate her, this meant a bed needed to be found in a hospital with pediatric intensive care. Thankfully this was AlderHey Children's hospital.
Within 12 hours of taking Lauren to A&E, where she walked in and talked to the receptionist, we were at Alderhey hospital in the intensive care unit, with our daughter who was critically ill.