A young mum has spoken of her horror after a tiny ‘bruise’ on her daughter’s chest turned out to be life-threatening meningococcal B
The parents believe a free vaccine should be issued to prevent spread of the fatal infection
A FAMILY are urging parents to get their kids’ vaccinated, after a brush with a fatal infection nearly cost them their little girl’s life.
Parents of four-year-old Jazmyn Parker, Sarah, 32, and Aaron, 35, were devastated when she contracted meningococcal B, an illness that can lead to meningitis and sepsis.
The infection, which tragically claimed the life of Brit toddler Faye Burdett earlier this year, is the cause of 90% of all meningococcal infections in young children.
Before contracting the deadly disease, Jazmyn was completely up-to-date with her immunisations and had appeared fit and well.
It wasn’t until August last year that she woke up late at night with a fever.
As the family had previously been suffering with the flu, mum Sarah wasn’t initially alarmed by her condition.
The next morning, Jazmyn screamed out in pain when her mum tried to pick her up.
Sarah remembered: "She couldn't stand anything touching her legs. She just kept screaming.
"I noticed a couple of marks on her legs, but it just looked like a heat rash."
Rushing Jazmyn to her GP in Renmark, South Australia, they warned the parents to take the tot to the local hospital.
As doctors tried to bring down Jazmyn’s temperature, she suffered a terrifying seizure.
After diagnosing the tot with meningococcal B, she was moved to Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital and hooked up to a drip in intensive care.
In the three days medics battled to slow the spreading infection, dark spots sprang up all over Jazmyn’s body.
Caring mum Sarah explained: “The morning we got to Adelaide, Jazmyn only had one tiny spot on her chest – but by 10pm that night, they were everywhere.”
Finally, after four weeks of constant monitoring and medication, Jazmyn was moved out of intensive care.
The brave tot then had to undergo a series of skin grafts, where doctors moved skin from her upper thigh to cover the deep welts the meningococcal had left behind.
Sarah said: "I thought the spots on her legs were just bruising, and that they'd go away.
“But they were actually dead tissue. She's had about 15 skin grafts in total, but she's a very tough, resilient little girl."
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Almost a year later, Jazmyn is more or less recovered, although she still has to make regular trips to the hospital in Adelaide.
Even though the parents are relieved their little girl has recovered, they worry there aren’t enough safeguards against the meningococcal strain.
Sarah explained: "She was completely up to date with her immunisations, but we had no idea that this didn't include being covered against the B strain.
"At the moment, you have to pay for it privately, which we would have done, had we known.
"All those times we'd been to the doctors to discuss immunisations, and nobody ever mentioned it.”
What is meningoccal B?
- Meningococcal group B bacteria cause life-threatening infections, including meningitis and blood poisoning
- The NHS estimates that Men B is responsible for 90% of meningoccal infections in the UK
- NHS statistics reveal that between 500-1,700 people are affected by meningoccal B every year, with one in ten dying as a result of the infection.
- Survivors of the infection can be left with permanent disabilities, including brain damage and epilepsy
The determined parents have sent a petition to the Australian parliament, urging them to introduce a vaccine against the infection.
They are documenting their progress on a Facebook page, which is followed by over 2,000 people.
Sarah, who is also mum to Rihanna, nine and Elise, five, hopes that sharing Jazmyn’s story will raise awareness.
She said: "The word is getting out there. We just want to make sure nobody else goes through what we have.
"We'll always be grateful to the GP that first saw Jazmyn. If he hadn't seen that bruise on her chest and realised what it meant, this could be a very different story."
