This blog carries on from the Diary that followed Emma throughout the year in which she contracted meningitis and septicaemia at the age of 15 months, in 2005. The day-to-day diary of that year can be found by clicking here (this link will take you to the main website from which you can then view the diary).
For those of you who do not have the time to read the diary in full, let me very briefly summarise the events for you here:
Emma was 15 months old when she was misdiagnosed with an ear infection and was left for two days without receiving medical attention that she urgently needed. As a result, when she was eventually admitted to hospital and diagnosed with Pneumococcal Meningitis and Septicaemia, she remained in a semi-comatosed for a month and spent a total of two and a half months in hospital, undergoing horrific treatment, including brain surgery, lumbar punctures, MRI and CT scans; and that's not to mention the daily (usually several times a day) blood tests, cannula and long line insertions she had to endure. She suffered from numerous seizures, lost her vision, mobility and hearing, contracted Hydrocephalus and sustained extensive permanent brain damage. There were several times that we were told that she wouldn't make it and we honestly believed that we had lost her. We were also told that Emma would never walk, talk, see, hear or feed herself again, and her prognosis was very very bleak.
However, despite all the odds being completely against her, our little girl did survive both the extremely aggressive form of meningitis she contracted and the septicaemia (the latter which she contracted twice - the second time following a cochlear implant operation in October of the same year).
For those of you who do not have the time to read the diary in full, let me very briefly summarise the events for you here:
Emma was 15 months old when she was misdiagnosed with an ear infection and was left for two days without receiving medical attention that she urgently needed. As a result, when she was eventually admitted to hospital and diagnosed with Pneumococcal Meningitis and Septicaemia, she remained in a semi-comatosed for a month and spent a total of two and a half months in hospital, undergoing horrific treatment, including brain surgery, lumbar punctures, MRI and CT scans; and that's not to mention the daily (usually several times a day) blood tests, cannula and long line insertions she had to endure. She suffered from numerous seizures, lost her vision, mobility and hearing, contracted Hydrocephalus and sustained extensive permanent brain damage. There were several times that we were told that she wouldn't make it and we honestly believed that we had lost her. We were also told that Emma would never walk, talk, see, hear or feed herself again, and her prognosis was very very bleak.
However, despite all the odds being completely against her, our little girl did survive both the extremely aggressive form of meningitis she contracted and the septicaemia (the latter which she contracted twice - the second time following a cochlear implant operation in October of the same year).
She has been the biggest fighter I have ever known, and after the horrific ordeal she had to endure, by the end of that year she was at a point where she was learning to walk, was able to feed herself from a loaded spoon, could hear thanks to a cochlear implant and her vision was slowly returning.
This blog carries on from this point in Emma's rehabilitation and continues to the present day. It starts in January 2006 and will take you up to the present day with information being provided on either a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis, depending on the number of significant events that occurred within each time-frame regarding Emma's development. Once the present day has been reached, the blog will be updated on a weekly basis, highlighting all important occurrences that have taken place within that week.
No comments:
Post a Comment