‘It’s as deadly as meningitis’ Mum told her son has eczema but the truth was much worse...
He was raced to hospital
New mum Rhian Brace has warned parents to be on high-alert after doctors diagnosed her son with eczema but he had a potentially deadly virus.
It’s thought that little two-week-old Ernie contracted the herpes simplex virus from an unknown visitor with a cold sore just after he was born, as neither of his parents have ever been diagnosed with it. Rhian noticed newborn Ernie had a blister on the back of his head during a bath and when it popped she saw pus.
In a post on her Facebook page Rhian says, ‘Ernie didn’t have a temperature, his nappies hadn’t changed, he was feeding as he had been for the two weeks he had been at home. The only indication I had that he wasn’t well was one tiny blister like spot on the back of head, which after being bathed had popped and what can only be described as puss had come away from it, I cleaned the area and re-washed his head/hair just in case it was infectious.’
A GP diagnosed Ernie with baby eczema but when more blisters and boils appeared on his head, his mum knew it was more serious than that.
‘I then contacted the doctors again to have second opinion,’ she revealed in her post.
'It was then that the doctor that saw Ernie phoned straight through to the children’s ward and I was strongly advised that he needed to be seen by the skin specialists.'
'Three days later I was told that it was the herpes simplex virus, also known as a the common cold sore,' she added.
‘I was still very much at this point unaware about how serious it was. All I knew was that my baby needed to have his anti-viral meds through an IV line.’
Ernie then spent the next two weeks in hospital fighting the disease and doctors commended Rhian on her quick reaction.
‘A common cold sore, doesn’t seem to serious does it? Wrong, it is just as deadly as meningitis in babies if not treated straight away because it starts to attack their brain, lungs and other vital organs, resulting in Ernie needing a long line fitted, so the antibiotics can be fed straight into his system.
Rhian went on to warn other parents of its dangers. 'I want to raise awareness to everyone else out there so that hopefully nobody else has to go through what Ernie or myself or his dad have been through,' she says.
