Sarah - posted on 10/16/2010 ( 33 moms have responded )
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It is with a heavy, heavy heart I announce to you all, the loss of our sweet little angel, Sophie Noella Rose, born March 24th, 2010.
She woke up Wednesday October 13th as normal, such a happy baby girl, smiling away & so excited to see me. Our morning routine was the same as it has always been....no indication of the nightmare we were about to endure. She went down for a nap about 11am & was sleeping soundly. Daddy came home for lunch about noon & she woke up & acknowledged he was home. Within half an hour, he noticed she was 'acting funny'. In disbelief I told him, "what do you mean, 'acting funny'? she was fine all morning." Then I went to check on her. She just looked at me with this "mommy, what is happening to me?" question in her face...she was quite warm & breathing rapidly. I stripped her down, took her temp & put a lightweight sleeper on her. Her temp was barely 102F (39C) so I wasn't too alarmed as she is teething & there is so many colds going around right now. The breathing is what alarmed me. I kept trying to tell myself 'maybe it is just because of the fever...'
We went to the hospital & they ran tests, ruling out everything from tonsillitis/ear infection to pneumonia. They figured it was just the flu or a bad cold & we were released to go home. Her breathing seemed to have settled down & she finally fell asleep, as she was so tired. She slept for about an hour again & when she woke up, she seemed so very pale. Her erratic breathing returned & she just seemed to moan in pain. She was burning up at this point, but again the temp only read 102.4F so I gave her a tempid bath. Her temp lowered a bit, & I just put her in her diaper & wrapped her loosely in a receiving blanket & just held her. She opened her & just stared at me with look of fear in her eyes & I knew then something was really very wrong & frantically told my husband we need to go to the hospital NOW.
As soon as we got there, they rushed her in & began working on her...tubes, monitors, IV's...we were beside ourselves....what was happening to our healthy, beautiful, happy baby girl? Then we were told we were being flown to Edmonton (4 hours away) with her & a specialized peds team was being flown up for Sophie. No matter how much they were working on her, she just kept getting worse & worse. Just before the peds team arrived, she went into cardiac arrest. They worked on her for over an hour but she just couldn't fight anymore. She fought with everything she had until the very end....Our little Sophie, passed shortly after midnight on Thursday October 14th.
I held her for hours afterwards, just rocking her...praying this was all some horrible nightmare...but our little angel had been called home, away from all her pain & suffering. God answered our prayers, but in a different way. He saw how much she was suffering & He took her home. She was an angel on loan to us for a short time.
We found out later that day that it was Septicaemia caused by Neisseria meningitidis, the bacterium commonly found in meningitis. In Sophie's rare case, it caused a meningococcal infection of her blood (meningococcal septicaemia) which in 12 short hours, took her from us. It carried a 75% mortality rate in infants under the age of 2yrs within a few hours of initial onset. It is so rare, it is hard to diagnose as it does not present itself like bacterial or viral meningitis...ie stiff neck, high fever over 104F/40C...
I am sorry to share such horrible news but I feel everyone needs to know...to be educated, to possibly recognize the signs so it may be caught sooner, so no little ones have to ever suffer from this.
We are staying strong as we know she would want us to. Hug your little ones close for us.
Rest In Peace our sweet baby girl, our precious little Sophie ♥
"Babies are angels with invisible wings..."
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