An Adelaide teenager was in hospital for about six months when what was believed to be a common cold turned out to be an invasive sepsis infection.
Harry Trowbridge, now 14, began showing common cold symptoms last year before his health quickly declined, his mother, Meagan Mercurio, said.
She said within three days Harry began vomiting, complaining of sore limbs and then struggling to walk.
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Harry was taken to hospital where blood tests were done, and the teenager sent home.
But the family received a call the following day urging them to come back to the hospital because doctors were alarmed by the test results.
In a matter of hours, Harry was admitted to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (WCH) intensive care unit and diagnosed with streptococcal sepsis.
His condition became so bad he could no longer move his arms and legs.
“Things got very nasty very quickly,” Mercurio said.
“It was just a really horrible experience … when Harry was unwell the first couple of days, there was a lot of uncertainty as to whether he would recover and what that recovery would look like.
“We went into a little bit of survival mode … we were told (by the doctor) ‘Out of everyone in the hospital, your child is the one I’m most worried about’.”
Doctors began treating Harry with antibiotics.
Mercurio said they believed the infection began in her son’s throat, then spread to his blood.
After spending three months in hospital, Harry was discharged — only to return a few days later for emergency surgery because the infection was still present, Mercurio said.
She remembers Harry’s 12 days in the intensive care unit as one of the hardest times in her life.
“As a parent, you feel lost, helpless and I honestly still struggle to explain the horror of watching your child’s health decline so quickly,” Mercurio said.
Supporting other parents
During his hospital stay, Harry’s parents had to be constantly by his side, feeding him ice chips and helping him with anything he needed.
His mother said a recliner chair beside Harry’s bed was life-changing, as it meant both parents were much more comfortable during their hospital stay.
“Spending 12 hours to 24 hours on a plastic chair is not ideal … that recliner chair was just our home, to be honest,” Mercurio said.
“Those chairs really just provide somewhere you can take a 15 minute, half an hour nap, which as the parent of a sick child is massively important for you to be able to even have the mental capacity to support your kid.”
One day when Mercurio returned with Harry from an MRI, her chair was gone.
“A nurse explained another child needed it so when I looked over you could see there was another parent trying to breastfeed their sick child in the chair,” she said.
“It was then I realised there wasn’t enough chairs for every parent to have one and the ICU ward has 12 beds and sometimes all those beds are full.”
The family has launched a fundraiser so every bed in the WCH intensive care unit can have a recliner chair beside it.
The hospital already had five chairs and recently has purchased another. Funds to purchase the remaining chairs have also been raised online, and Mercurio said any extra money will be donated to the hospital.
WCH Foundation head of mission Verity Gobbet said more chairs would help families.
“These are custom-made recliners and they have to meet all the infection control requirements and everything like that,” Gobbet said.
WCH executive director of nursing and midwifery Rachael Yates thanked the donors involved in the fundraiser.
“We are always happy to receive direct feedback from families on how we can make their time at hospital more comfortable,” Yates said.
“The recliner chairs provide comfort at a time when parents are often tired, distressed and emotionally exhausted, and we look forward to the arrival of new chairs so that family and carers can rest where needed.”