'I found my baby lifeless after knowing his symptoms were deadly'

A baby boy was left battling for his life in hospital after being found "unresponsive and lifeless" at home by his mother. Little Carter developed mottled skin, became pale and started crying more than usual following his eight-week jabs.

His mum, Rachel, could "instinctively" tell something wasn't right, so she took the youngster to Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath, Somerset. "He was seen in A&E but they told me that his symptoms were due to the vaccinations and we were sent home," she said.

The next day, Carter's condition worsened so Rachel took him back to RUH. The newborn was kept overnight for observation before being discharged the following morning.

READ MORE:West Country dad stunned after mistaking forest trend for grim 'double murder'

READ MORE:Somerset town getting new banking hub as locations revealed

Again, doctors were convinced he was having a standard reaction to the 6-in-1, rotavirus and MenB vaccines - all given at eight weeks. However, the next day, Rachel found her little boy "unresponsive and lifeless", as she said in Carter's Sepsis Story.

"I took him to another local hospital before he was transferred back to RUH, where a doctor could immediately tell that something was out of the ordinary," she said. "He was with another child in a different room and I saw him rip off his PPE and come straight into ours, running right over to Carter."

"There was no waiting around; you could tell that it was an emergency. "He did a few checks I think he listened to his heart through a stethoscope, and then looked at his numbers - and then he turned around and he said, 'Your baby is very, very sick'. "He told me that within a minute, nurses would come in and that they would need to take Carter away."

The medical professional detailed all the life-saving tests and procedures the little one would require, further alarming Rachel.

"He then said, 'I'm a very, very happy doctor, but when I'm serious, I'm serious'," she added. "He told me, 'You need to let people take your baby. We're going to take him into another room but you have to stay here. We will bring him back'."

"Suddenly all of these nurses came in, picked Carter up and just took him away. Those few minutes were just the longest minutes of my life."

Rachel pleaded with the staff to "please look after him", before facing another excruciating wait. "It was awful," she said. "They took him away, did a lumbar puncture, and the doctor came in and said that even just by looking at him his diagnosis was sepsis. And when the results came back he was right Carter had sepsis."

Carter, who received his jabs on January 28, 2021, was admitted to the ward for a week while doctors attempted to stabilise him.

"Those first few nights were just the worst," Rachel said. "They couldn't settle his temperature and I remember asking, 'Is he going to be okay? ', and they simply responded, 'We'll do everything we can.' They couldn't even tell me at that stage whether he would be okay. It was horrific."

Subsequent tests revealed that Carter had E. coli in his blood and the tube from his kidney to his bladder was too wide. Instead of wee coming out as it should, it was flowing back into his kidneys," Rachel explained.

Carter was on antibiotics for a six-month period, which impacted his immune system, and he has since been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Thankfully, Carter's condition has improved significantly.

"He does catch a lot of viruses and he's had tonsillitis multiple times but he's doing well," Rachel shared. "I'm very careful who he's around, very careful kind of trusting my instincts. Whenever he goes into a hospital, I listen to myself, to my opinion, before any doctor."

"If it wasn't for that one certain doctor that diagnosed him with sepsis, he wouldn't be here today. Thank goodness for him. If I hadn't trusted myself though, he would not be here today."

Rachel is now advocating for increased awareness among parents regarding the critical signs of sepsis, emphasizing the importance of early detection to prevent fatal outcomes.

Sepsis occurs when the body's response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs, potentially leading to death if not promptly treated. It can arise from various infections, including urinary tract infections (UTIs) and pneumonia.

Symptoms to watch for include unconsciousness, difficulty breathing, fever, slurred speech, pale or discoloured skin, rapid heartbeat, and in infants, a weak or high-pitched cry. The condition can result in tissue damage, organ failure, and even death.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about one-third of those who develop sepsis die from it. In the UK, sepsis claims more lives annually than breast, bowel, and prostate cancer combined.

Rachel remarked: "It is possible that Carter may have had a temperature before his vaccines, but he spiked a fever by the evening after the jabs and developed mottled skin and was crying and pale what I know now are some of the classic symptoms of sepsis in babies and small children."

"No one knows about sepsis. If you look at TikTok at the moment people are asking, 'What are the symptoms? ' 'What can we look out for? I'm thinking, this is one of the number one killers. How do we not know about it? It's just madness."

The mum, who has clarified that theres no indication the safe vaccines caused her son Carters condition, wants to assure other families that there is hope following a battle with sepsis. "I see how happy Carter is now, he's thriving," she expressed.

"We were lucky. I always say he is my little sepsis warrior."