Callum Adamson
Aged 10 weeks
It was 4.30 in the morning on 30th December 1999, when Callum woke up for his early morning feed then he went back to sleep again. As normal he woke again at 9.30am. This time instead of smiling as he always did because Callum was a very happy, contented baby he was crying and seemed very unhappy. He only took half his bottle and I was unable to settle him down. I nursed him in my arms because every time I went to put him down he would just cry. This was totally out of character as Callum was not a whingy baby and he had been winded and changed, so I knew it wasn't that.
It was about 11.30am when I decided to call the doctor. The doctor told me to bring him down straight away, because by now I could see that his condition had deteriorated and he was burning up. The doctor checked him thoroughly and diagnosed an ear infection and prescribed antibiotics and liquid paracetomol for his temperature and we went back home. In the afternoon I went shopping with James, my partner and Callum who was asleep in his pushchair. When we arrived home Callum was still sleeping and we thought this was the best thing for him. When I did wake him he was floppy with a staring expression and his hands and feet were cold.
At about 5.45pm we tried giving him a bottle but he would not open his mouth and his lips were blue. This was when we realised something was seriously wrong. James rushed Callum straight back to the doctors. He had now started to develop a rash and the doctor gave him a penicillin injection and called an ambulance. He was admitted to hospital about an hour later. His little body was so overwhelmed by meningococcal septicaemia that there was nothing the doctors could do to save his life.
This terrible disease took our baby son Callum at 11.20pm. James and myself were at his bedside cuddling him and he gripped our fingers. During the dark days that followed that still seem like a grey mist we tried to come to terms with what had happened to our lives - so many feelings. Why us?
Even today we look for answers that nobody knows.
MeningitisUK · Registered Charity No.1076774