Ward F65 Sunderland Royal Hospital

Hi my name is Jess and my son Louie was recently admitted to Sunderland Royal Hospital with Streptococcal meningitis and due to this bacteria being so advanced in fluid around his brain, it has been making him have seizures. During this period we have been on multiple wards and we have noticed that non have any baby sensory activities or toys. Ward F65 is a children’s ward which cares for those aged 0-24month and some of those children may be in for a long duration like ourselves. I would love to raise funds to purchase stimulating toys for babies and small children because keeping Louie entertained during this time has been difficult without any engaging entertainment; I can only imagine how hard it may be for parents/carers who’s children are more active.

Ward F65 has 12 rooms and each room only has a small amount of toys/books which are not stimulating or are not suitable for babies. Using this money I would love to provide each room with a sensory tent, sensory light and stimulating activities such as black and white accessories for babies to help the development of children but also help parents keep their children entertained ❤️

I appreciate everyone’s kind and loving words so far and I pray and hope that we can make people’s lives a little brighter with this kind gesture

Below I have wrote a short story about Louie’s Journey so far.

On Saturday 24th February my hero of a sister brought my little boy Louie into A&E at Sunderland Royal Hospital with a raging temperature, slight shaking of the hand and very lethargic; he was not drinking any of his bottles and vomiting. They immediately rushed them in and carried out a lumber puncture to retract fluid and took bloods and sent them straight to the lab. The results came back that he had pneumococcal meningitis and he immediately started antibiotics; the shaking hand was discovered to be a seizure due to him having the meningitis bacteria in some fluid around the brain. The doctor told us that if my sister had not have brought Louie in sooner he may not be with us today due to the severity of it.

We got admitted onto a ward where they continued his antibiotics and were also giving him medication to help with the seizure. All was good on the night, he was drinking little amounts and smiling away.

On Sunday 25th February Louie again spiked a high temperature and started seizing for the second time, this time it lasted an hour and only settled after two types of anti seizure medication. His temperature was still high after many attempts to bring it down with ibuprofen and paracetamol.

On Monday 26th February Louie once again spiked a fever and a third seizure happened. After many failed attempts to stop it using three types of medication and many dowses, after an hour and a half Louie was sent to theatre to be put under anaesthetic and transferred to the Royal Victoria Infirmary (Great North Children’s Hospital) to be put in intensive care. Here he was using a ventilator to help him breathe through the anaesthetic and was put on fluids as well as antibiotics and his anti seizure medication; during this period it helped his brain relax, avoiding anymore seizures or further damage.

After being in intensive care for a few days we returned to Sunderland Royal Hospital after he reacted good to being off oxygen and was feeding great again. We are now awaiting Louie to finish his course of antibiotics, hoping no more seizures occur then we can take our baby home

We are still no where near full recovery and there may be some long term damage to Louie’s development but he is with us today and I can cuddle my baby and that is all that matters