Parents of a young boy were left in shock after their son almost died when a terrifying rash spread across his body.
Teddie Walne, aged just 17 months, became covered in dark purple blotches and is set to have his fingertips and toes amputated on his right side after contracting meningitis and septicaemia. His quick-thinking mum Zoe, 37, called 111 after she spotted light blotches on her son’s stomach.
The symptoms began with the “tiniest” pink mark on Teddie’s forehead, Zoe told The Mirror. She was told by a 111 operator to keep an eye on the marks and that a doctor would call her within two hours.
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But the marks on Teddie’s skin quickly began to darken, and when Zoe called 111 a second time an ambulance was sent to whisk the youngster to hospital. Teddie was rushed to Intensive Care at Manchester Children’s Hospital, where he was put into an induced coma.
After spending a week on life support, one-year-old Teddie finally began showing signs of being able to breathe on his own. Doctors are now running tests on his brain to determine whether it has been affected by the illness, while a plastic surgery team is working to heal the huge blisters that developed on the young boy’s skin as a result of the rash.
Mum Zoe called the horrifying ordeal “the most terrifying thing I think I have ever been through”, adding that she keeps “thanking my lucky stars” that her brave son has pulled through. Zoe is now urging other parents to trust their instincts when it comes to their children’s health.
"The doctors said to me 'you need to realise you saved his life, because if you had waited for the doctor to ring you back Teddie wouldn't be here now,'” she said. “You've got to follow your gut, you know your child and if you don't think you can wait, don't wait.”
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