Mum's warning after 6-week old babies admitted to hospital
After a friend visited with a cold.
By Livia Gamble
February 27 2017
A mum has issued an important reminder to anyone visiting a baby while suffering symptoms of a cold.
Laura Wallis from Melbourne shared heartbreaking photos of her six-week-old twins Harper and Harlow being treated in hospital after a friend visited with a cold.
“Please I urge anyone who has a cold not to go near babies this is the result of someone with a cold coming near my babies...." she wrote.
“One twin on oxygen and a feeding tube and another heading the same way so please if you are sick even with a minor cold do not go near babies.”
Speaking to The Daily Mail, Wallis said her twins, who were born five-weeks premature, contracted RSV, a virus that can be mistaken for the common cold in adults.
”When the girls were born they were five weeks premmie. I explained to all my family and friends that even minor illnesses could harm them and told them not to come over if they were sick.”
Harper fell ill first and was rushed to hospital on Tuesday. On Thursday, both twins we sick.
“It is heart-breaking and extremely scary to see them like this, I just sit next to their beds every day staring at the monitors,” she said.
“At this stage, I knew why they were sick – I had heard of RSV - but didn’t realise how bad it could be or that it would just look like a common cold.”
Wallis has two other children who don’t really understand what’s going on.
"Even if you just have a runny nose don't risk it," Wallis said. "With babies, it can be life or death because they haven't built up a strong immune system."
