|
EVIANNA "EVI" ROSE — USA
Lived January 24, 2019 to March 17, 2019 Late-onset Mother's GBS Status: Tested positive Gestational Age: Full term Age Harmed: 7 weeks |
On Friday the 15th, when I woke up, Evi's breathing seemed a bit labored. I picked her up and she felt hot. I took her temp - 101.9. Her eyes were glassy and she started to make a horrible moaning/mewing noise. I took her out to the living room where Maria was and we agreed that we needed to get her to the doctor ASAP. We took her to the Salem Emergency Room Hospital. I told them I had been positive for Group B Strep during pregnancy. They insisted that wasn't relevant. They saw her, ran some basic tests, gave her a saline drip and Tylenol, then at about 1PM, they discharged her. They told us it was a simple virus and, I'll never forget this, said that it was actually her immune system making itself stronger.
I took her home, but something still wasn't right. She was restless, she was still making that horrible sound, she threw up a little. I called the pediatrician and he said to bring her in right away. Maria and I did. She threw up a lot, and he said get her back to the ER right away. We went back, where they finally started acting with some sense of urgency. They did a terrible spinal tap. Maria was the first to notice that she had swelling in her forehead. When we called the doctors' attention to it, they seemed surprised. I told them again about the Group B Strep. Then everything happened very fast. She was intubated, then her vitals were crashing. They told us that they were going to transfer her to a hospital in Portland, but by the time the Portland medical team got there, she wasn't stable enough to be transferred. They stabilized her finally and we rode up in the ambulance. But by the time we got there it was too late. The doctors at OHSU did their best, but they told us she had sepsis and meningitis. They told us that she wasn't showing any signs of brain activity and that they would do a brain death test, but that we needed to think about when to withdraw life support. They did the test on Saturday and it showed brain death. They warned us that she likely would not make it through the night. At 5AM I woke from fitful sleep to the sound of alarms going off. She was crashing again. We all agreed that we should let her go. They withdrew her from life support and took us out to the courtyard, where they handed me my baby and she died in my arms.
They told me later that the bacteria that had brought on the meningitis and sepsis was Group B Strep. The very thing I hold told them about in the beginning.
-Ginger McCall
Ginger shares GBS awareness through Twitter, Facebook, and local news media
|
In a matter of days, a Salem mother watched her 7-week-old baby goes from happy and alert to gravely sick with GBS meningitis to dying in her arms. She tells her story here in the Statesman Journal, part of the USA Today network. |
|
To learn more about Perinatal & GBS Misconceptions, click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of Preterm Labor, click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of GBS Infection, click HERE.
To learn more about Why Membranes Should NOT Be Stripped, click HERE.
To learn more about How to Help Protect Your Baby from Group B Strep (GBS), click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of Preterm Labor, click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of GBS Infection, click HERE.
To learn more about Why Membranes Should NOT Be Stripped, click HERE.
To learn more about How to Help Protect Your Baby from Group B Strep (GBS), click HERE.