NorTweet
02-04-2003, 07:42 AM
Hi!
I would like to share my story to you.
October 22. this year I gave birth to a beautiful boy, Einar. He was born at home, as we had planned, with no complications. The L/D only lasted 2.5 hours, so everything went rather quickly.
My waters broke right before he crowned, and he was born with what we call a “victory hood”, the membranes still over his head and upper body. The expression “victory hood” seems quite ironic when thinking about what happened later in his short life.
Einar was perfectly healthy, and a beautiful baby boy who gave us, and his sister (2.5 years old) a lot of joy.
The night before the 12th day, he started screaming like he was in pain. This scream resembled the colic screams our daughter had had when she was a baby, and we thought he might be hurting because of colic as well. After screaming for less than an hour he calmed down, but did not want to breast feed, something that disturbed me a little, but I settled by him being too tired.
We slept for a couple of hours, him on top of me. Then I was woken by him making strange sounds, almost like whining, and he was also rather warm. We took his temperature, it was 40 Celcius (104 F). We got dressed, and Einar and I left for the hospital (a small hospital in our town). When we arrived, his skin had become blotchy, and the doctor on call was afraid of it being meningitis, and wanted to transport us to the larger hospital in a town only half an hour away, where they also have a children ward. He followed us in the ambulance. He was often feeling Einar’s fontanel, but I do not think it started bulging on the way to the hospital. His skin wasn’t blotchy anymore, either, so everyone was quite optimistic.
When we arrived to the hospital, he had started having difficulties with his breathing, his throat seemed to be full of mucus. The ped. in this hospital gave Einar antibiotics as soon as we arrived, and started taking blood samples. They also did an x-ray of his lunges, as they believed RS (?) might be the diagnosis, because of the mucus in his air passage. His lungs were fine, though.
We were given our own room. 5 minutes later the doctor came in to take another look at Einar, and just then Einar stopped breathing. They managed to get him breathing again pretty quickly, and rushed him off to the intensive care unit. From now on doctors and nurses were around him constantly, and I believe they did all they could do for him. The sepsis was too severe, the infection too hostile. Everything went so quickly. Only 12 hours after leaving home, he was gone.
I still can’t believe it happened. From being a beautiful, strong and healthy baby, he was dead within 12 hours. We were in total shock and disbelieve.
They had managed to do a blood culture, and it came back GBS+. I have also been tested, and I carry the same serotype that took Einar away from me.
I have been reading a lot about GBS lately, trying to find out as much as possible about it. We would like to have another baby one day, even though I am afraid of this happening again. I just wish there were some sort of guarantee for this not happening again.
I would like to share my story to you.
October 22. this year I gave birth to a beautiful boy, Einar. He was born at home, as we had planned, with no complications. The L/D only lasted 2.5 hours, so everything went rather quickly.
My waters broke right before he crowned, and he was born with what we call a “victory hood”, the membranes still over his head and upper body. The expression “victory hood” seems quite ironic when thinking about what happened later in his short life.
Einar was perfectly healthy, and a beautiful baby boy who gave us, and his sister (2.5 years old) a lot of joy.
The night before the 12th day, he started screaming like he was in pain. This scream resembled the colic screams our daughter had had when she was a baby, and we thought he might be hurting because of colic as well. After screaming for less than an hour he calmed down, but did not want to breast feed, something that disturbed me a little, but I settled by him being too tired.
We slept for a couple of hours, him on top of me. Then I was woken by him making strange sounds, almost like whining, and he was also rather warm. We took his temperature, it was 40 Celcius (104 F). We got dressed, and Einar and I left for the hospital (a small hospital in our town). When we arrived, his skin had become blotchy, and the doctor on call was afraid of it being meningitis, and wanted to transport us to the larger hospital in a town only half an hour away, where they also have a children ward. He followed us in the ambulance. He was often feeling Einar’s fontanel, but I do not think it started bulging on the way to the hospital. His skin wasn’t blotchy anymore, either, so everyone was quite optimistic.
When we arrived to the hospital, he had started having difficulties with his breathing, his throat seemed to be full of mucus. The ped. in this hospital gave Einar antibiotics as soon as we arrived, and started taking blood samples. They also did an x-ray of his lunges, as they believed RS (?) might be the diagnosis, because of the mucus in his air passage. His lungs were fine, though.
We were given our own room. 5 minutes later the doctor came in to take another look at Einar, and just then Einar stopped breathing. They managed to get him breathing again pretty quickly, and rushed him off to the intensive care unit. From now on doctors and nurses were around him constantly, and I believe they did all they could do for him. The sepsis was too severe, the infection too hostile. Everything went so quickly. Only 12 hours after leaving home, he was gone.
I still can’t believe it happened. From being a beautiful, strong and healthy baby, he was dead within 12 hours. We were in total shock and disbelieve.
They had managed to do a blood culture, and it came back GBS+. I have also been tested, and I carry the same serotype that took Einar away from me.
I have been reading a lot about GBS lately, trying to find out as much as possible about it. We would like to have another baby one day, even though I am afraid of this happening again. I just wish there were some sort of guarantee for this not happening again.