Queens Hospital

Hi,

Pictured is our 8 month old son, Beauden.

A healthy baby boy born in October, however unfortunately at 6 weeks old he caught the usual 'common cold' from his 2 year old brother. After a few visits back and forth to our GP, he was diagnosed with the usual 'viral illness', however my mothers instinct kicked in and I felt he was continuing to deteriorate. At 2am on Saturday night, he hadn't woken for a feed (which was very unusual for him who would routinely wake every 2 hours!). I woke Mike (my husband) and expressed my concern to him, I also felt his 'work of breathing' was increasing. Being a nurse myself, I just knew he wasn't 'right'. I decided to call an ambulance, as I felt he may need oxygen support. Beauden's breathing continued to deteriorate, I was trying to stay calm whilst on the phone to the advisor, whilst Mike was holding him shouting saying he was fighting desperately for every breath. After what felt like an eternity, but was only actually 15 minutes, the ambulance crew arrived. Beau had actually stabilised a little by now, but we were still taken to our local hospital, Queens. We were admitted and transferred to Tropical Lagoon ward, Beau was doing 'okay' however did require small amounts of oxygen for the next 24 hours. Our ward review on Monday, we had a plan of trying to get him to breast feed again, if we could achieve this we would be discharged on Tuesday. Monday night, at around 6pm, myself and Mike were unable to settle him, he had spiked a temperature of 39, being a nurse i requested a Dr's review, it was decided we should now start to treat Beau with a broad spectrum antibiotic to cover him for a secondary bacterial infection, we also had a chest x-ray. Mike left the hospital at midnight, however at 1am Beau woke, but by the time I'd walked around his cot he'd fallen back asleep...again very unusual for him. 2am he woke again, I picked him up and he looked at me as if to say 'please help me', I called Mike and told him to get to the hospital straight away, I screamed for a nurse. Before I knew it, I was ushered out of the room, panic alarms were activated, a sea of Dr's arrived, as well as the anaesthetic team. I was ushered out of the room, now having a panic attack myself in the nurses station, Mike arrived at the hospital to me, hysterical, Mike run down to Beau's room, he stood at the end of his bed, just watching on whilst the team tried to stabilise him. Beau had deteriorated so so quickly, it really was like something out of a horror movie. Beauden ended up being ventilated for a week. He had caught RSV, a viral infection that really is so dangerous for young babies. We cannot thank the ward team and the on-call team at Tropical Lagoon at Queens Hospital, Romford enough for their quick action that night, they saved our baby boy and we are eternally grateful. Mike is completing the Swansea Half Iron Man in July (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 mile run) as well as the Tenby Full Iron Man in September (2.4 mile sea swim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2 mile run) to raise money to say the biggest thank you to everyone on Tropical Lagoon ward.