Jennifer's Daughter's Story   — collin` hamm, TN, USA

Hello, my name is Jennifer. I am a mother of two children, one 19 months and the other 3 months. My daughter who is now three months had group B strep when she was born, but the doctors did not diagnose it when she was born. We had gotten home and she began crying nonstop and drawing her legs up to her chest. She also felt like she was 300 degrees so I rushed her to the hospital. When I got to the hospital they did test after test and did spinal taps among many other tests to find out that she had spinal meningitis. She was immediately transported to Childrens' Hospital where she was admitted for 14 days. When I was in labor the doctors did the test but never did diagnose me with it. They said it had came back negative. When i got to the hospital with my baby the said had I not brought her in she could have been dead within 12 hours. She is now only three months old and going through therapy. GBS is a serious thing and I have been very fortunate to have my daughter still and cannot even begin to imagine what all these other people went through when they lost their child. When you get spinal meningitis, an infection of the fluid around the brain and the spine, it is a very dangerous thing. It can cause long-term effects such as: cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, or mental retardation. Unfortunately my doctor said that she won't show any symptoms until 1 to 2 years of age. Right now we are just hoping and praying every day that our baby girl will be alright. My thoughts and prayers are with every family who has ever had a child that has had to go through this.