Amanda's Son's Story   — Amanda Pink, GA, USA

On August 27, 2011 my first born son was only 16 days old. I woke him up around 5 am for a feeding. He didn't nurse well and was a little fussy. I was trying to rock him back to sleep when he threw up the first time. He threw up again, so I went to wake up my husband and ask him what he thought I should do. At that moment he projectile vomited all over me. I was getting very worried now and he seemed to be in a lot of pain. He was crying like I'd never heard before and he was inconsolable. I finally called the after hours emergency number given to us by our pediatrician. After explaining everything to the nurse she advised us to take our son to the the ER. I cried. I was so worried at this point. He fell asleep on the way to our local hospital. When we arrived my husband and I contemplated going back home. He seemed okay then. He was asleep and looked peaceful. Finally I said, "We are here. Let's just go on in." I'm so thankful to God for not allowing us to go back home. He wasn't okay, and we were about to find out how bad it really was. Upon arrival his temperature was only 99.2. With this temperature they just put us in a room and kept an eye on him. I noticed about an hour after being there that he was having what I thought were seizures. The nurse didn't seem too concerned when I told her. Then he had another one. They took his temperature again and it was 102F. Immediately the doctor came in and one of the first things out of his mouth was meningitis. He was informed that I was GBS positive while pregnant with our son. I was so confused. I had no idea GBS meningitis could be late-onset. I was sick to my stomach with worry and concern. A spinal tap was done and it confirmed that my tiny little baby boy had meningitis. They started IV antibiotics and called for transfer to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. He had more seizures not long after being admitted into Children's. These seizures were a little more intense. A couple of hours after being in a regular room an infectious disease doctor came in to check on our son. It took him only a few minutes to make orders and have him sent straight to PICU. The next few days were so exhausting. He had an EEG, CT scans, and an MRI. He had IVs in his hand and foot. Later they put in a PICC line. They were assisting with his breathing and he was still having seizures. We almost lost him after they administered a loading dose of seizure medication. I had never prayed or cried so much before this happened. I had faith and belief that God would help us through this. And He did. After a few days our little blessing was showing signs of improvement. They were finally able to tell us he would survive this sickness. After a week in PICU we were moved to a regular room. He had therapy everyday and another EEG and MRI were done. The MRI showed damage, but they said his brain is so young that it would heal and rewire. They couldn't tell us how well it would heal. Only time would tell. We were able to finally take our baby boy back home after being in the hospital a little over two weeks. We had him doing in-home therapy several weeks after returning home. He did very well with therapy. When he was about 4 months old his therapist noticed he was having a little trouble with his left leg and foot. When he started standing and cruising he would pronate outward. It was very minimal, but the therapist put him in SMOs to try and correct it. He was discharged from therapy before he was a year old and was taken out of the SMOs after 6 months because he was doing so well. He has never been behind developmentally. He has always been at or above in all areas of devolopment. He started sitting unassisted at 4.5 months, crawled at 6 months, took his first steps at 9 months and now at 20 months he runs, climbs, tries to jump, talks well, is forming sentences, and he knows some of his shapes and colors. We feel beyond blessed to have this sweet, funny, smart, and active boy in our life. We are so thankful God allowed us to have him and to keep him. My heart is so sad knowing that there are precious gifts from God that were taken way too soon. My prayers are with all the Moms and Dads who lost their babies to this horrible bacteria.