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Grandmother's plea: Trust your instincts

06.09.11

A SHREWSBURY woman is calling on people to trust their instincts after following her gut feeling saved her precious granddaughter from deadly brain bug meningitis.

Now Linda Lee, 59, cherishes every moment with young Zoe, who at the age of four, is on the road to recovery and is just about to start school.

When Zoe Lee was 10-months-old, her tiny body was ravaged by meningococcal septicaemia causing  her finger tips to drop off as blood poisoning seeped to her extremities.

Linda had been looking after the tot while her mum Julia Morgan was at work when she noticed how unusually hot Zoe was.

She said: “I took her temperature and it read 39.7 and immediately alarm bells started to ring. I gave her Calpol and then took her straight to hospital.

“Something inside me told me not to put Zoe to bed and to act quickly and thankfully I trusted my instincts as when we were in hospital a couple of little spots started to appear on her body.

“At the hospital the doctor said he was going to monitor the situation for a while as it was traumatic for a baby to have a blood test, but I urged him to go ahead and test her straight away.

“She quickly deteriorated and at one point one point we nearly lost her – it was touch and go. Three months later she was still recovering in hospital.

“She’s such a little fighter and she’s so precious to me – we are so, so lucky to still have her. My words of advice to parents and to grandparents are to trust your instincts and always keep a thermometer in the house.”

After Zoe’s illness her family decided to support Meningitis UK and the charity’s aim of finding preventative vaccines to eradicate all forms of meningitis and associated diseases.

Linda, soon to turn 60, joined forces with her friends, Jan Childs and twin sisters Linda Jones and Sue Hall who were also celebrating this milestone birthday to perform ABBA’s Dancing Queen.

They also sold Meningitis UK wristbands and collected money to the sum of £180 at the birthday party. Linda also helped to raise £3,000 to aid vital vaccine research just after Zoe became ill.

Meningitis UK’s chief executive Steve Dayman who lost his son Spencer to the meningitis some time ago, said: “We are extremely grateful to Linda and her friends for their fantastic fundraising efforts – it looked like they had fun performing Dancing Queen and the money will be put towards life-saving research.

“What happened to Zoe when she was a baby highlights the importance of trusting your instincts and acting quickly.

“This is why Meningitis UK’s sole vision is to completely eradicate this devastating disease with a preventative vaccine.”

For more information about Meningitis UK’s work or to donate to the charity, call 0117 947 63 20 or visit www.meningitisuk.org