Mum warns others to ‘trust their instincts’ after baby’s sepsis was mistaken for tonsillitis

Do you know the symptoms of sepsis?

One mum has warned others to trust their instincts when their child is sick after her baby boy contracted the disease. The infant's symptoms were initially dismissed as tonsillitis, she revealed. Tyrone woman Acacia Bell said that her ten-month-old son Shane Óg woke in the middle of the night last month with a high temperature and that she gave him Calpol and Neurofen. His temperature continued for the rest of the day and so the child's father Shane brought him to an out-of-hours clinic, Acacia told Belfast Live. They were sent home with the advice to keep up the Calpol and Neurofen. After another 24 hours, baby Shane Óg was in the same condition and so the couple brought him to a different clinic, where they were told his vital signs were normal. The doctor said they could bring him to A&E if they wanted to but they decided against it. "He had started to come round himself and his colour wasn't great but he seemed OK at that stage so we went home," Acacia said. Shane got sick overnight and the next morning, his mother was shocked to find her baby looking "lifeless and pale". His skin was mottled, she said, and he was shivering. She managed to get a doctor's appointment for him for that afternoon. "The doctor took one look at him and she said he was about to fit," Acacia recalled. The child was rushed to hospital by ambulance. Doctors there, she said, again told her to give Shane Óg Calpol and Neurofen. "I was made to feel like I was wasting their time, like I was stupid but I knew there was something more wrong." They prescribed an antibiotic and again, the family were sent home. By the next morning, the baby's condition had worsened further. "I can't even describe his colour, death is the only word I can think of to describe it, his hands were blue and his wee eyelids and hands were purple, his wee skin mottled." Acacia phones for an ambulance but after hearing that Shane Óg was on an antibiotic, the paramedics said it simply needed more time to work. Unsatisfied with everything that had gone on, Acacia and Shane decided to take the baby into the Royal Victoria Hospital for Sick Children. Five days later, Shane Óg was diagnosed with sepsis. Acacia now wants to warn parents to trust their gut when their child is unwell. "Never let anyone make you feel stupid or make you feel like your wrong... you know your child better than anyone. "I knew when my wee boy looked into my eyes that he was saying to me 'Mummy please help me'." Find out more about sepsis (also known as septicaemia) here.