Jordan Banjo said his baby son turned grey as he shared his terrifying battle with sepsis and viral meningitis.
The Diversity star welcomed his third child, Atreus, with wife Naomi Courts in April, but just weeks later he was rushed to hospital after becoming pale and floppy.
Jordan admitted he didn’t think there was anything to worry about when his wife phoned him and said Atreus was unwell, and praised Naomi for her quick thinking and maternal instinct.
Meningitis is when the lining of the brain and spinal cord becomes inflamed, and it can lead to sepsis, which is when the immune system overreacts to an infection and begins to attack vital organs.
Symptoms of viral meningitis in babies is drowsiness, becoming floppy and having pale or grey skin, as well as unusual crying and a fever.
Jordan, who also shares son Cassius, four, and daughter Mayowa, three, with Naomi, was presenting his KISS radio show when his wife called to tell him Atreus was poorly and “something wasn’t right”.
“She said ‘you need to get here right now’ and even then I was probably still a little bit in the moment of ‘everything is going to be fine’,” he told MailOnline.
But Jordan was unprepared for the terrifying scene that unfolded in the hospital room, as he saw doctors and nurses trying to save his baby boy’s life.
“He was completely grey, he's got cables hanging off of him, cannulas in, then they start talking about sepsis and viral meningitis and it was a really, really scary time,” he shared.
Atreus was given a course of antibiotics and is at home recovering following the scary hospital stint, and Jordan had some words of advice for fellow parents.
He recalled Atreus made “weird little noises” and started to “feel a bit floppy”, which is when his wife made the life-saving trip to A&E.
“If you notice something that's like, completely out of the ordinary, your gut feelings telling you they're not well,” Jordan pleaded.
“It's better safe than sorry, right?”
Meningitis Now: For more information and support on meningitis, visit meningitisnow.org
