Taylor was a happy, healthy and bubbly 9 and a half month old. He was hitting all his milestones and was full of character.
On the day of Saturday 14th March 2009, he was off his food, very unlike him as he loved his food and was always hungry for more. He wouldn’t keep a bottle down, had a temperature and was very quiet. I phoned 111 and was given an out of hours appointment.
We took him to the appointment at 6pm that evening where I pointed out to the doctor that Taylor had a pin prick rash on his face and that on the Friday he had been in contact with someone who had chicken pox. The doctor was very thorough, undressing Taylor and checking his whole body. The doctor commented that he was not concerned about the rash. Taylor had a temperature of 40 but the doctor sent us home advising to give Calpol and Nurofen every 2 hours along with water.
We set alarms through the night to ensure that we were seeing him every couple of hours to administer medication and water. At the 2am visit Taylor was a lot brighter and his temperature had come down so we thought that he was over the worst of it. He had a mark on his face which we thought was the start of chicken pox. I called 111 again anyway and was told that someone would call back within 8 hours. The phone rang at 5am. I explained the situation and the clinician said that it takes 2 weeks after contact with chicken pox for it to present itself and to go and check on him. When I went in he was covered in a purple rash and wasn’t breathing.
I have since learnt that the pin prick rash was an early sign of septicaemia and with a temperature of 40, Taylor should have been sent straight to A&E. Taylor died of Meningococcal Septicaemia and had early signs of Meningitis B.
