A mother has spoken of her devastation after her six-week-old baby contracted coronavirus – one of the UK’s youngest cases to date. Mum Eleanor-May Wallace-Marks, 18, noticed something was wrong with Henry last Wednesday, when his temperature reached 38.4 degrees and he wasn’t waking up for his bottles.
She phoned the NHS 111 helpline but says she was told stay at home and treat his symptoms from there. It wasn’t until Eleanor-May’s health visitor got involved and alerted the paediatric team at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Kent, that she was told she needed to go to A&E straight away because his temperature was ‘dangerously high’ for a new-born.
They were seen to instantly and staff checked his temperature once again and took blood samples. A cannula was inserted and Henry was given antibiotics as a precaution against sepsis. A swab was then taken to test him for coronavirus and Eleanor-May was told to stay overnight. But Henry still wouldn’t wake up for feeding and was put on a tube.
The following day, Henry was put on oxygen for 12 hours until his breathing stabilised without assistance and his heart-rate had dropped back down.
