Sarah Pugh didn't expect any issues when she welcomed baby Eloise into the world. She thought she would be bringing a healthy daughter back to her home in Mackay, Queensland, with her partner Doug, where her newest family member would easily fit in with her three other children.
She didn't expect to be back in hospital within a week of her daughter's birth, to have doctors battling to out what was causing her baby's liver to enlarge and her oxygen levels to fall.
She never thought it would be the common cold sore virus causing such devastation in her baby's tiny body, or that she would saying goodbye to her baby girl at just 25 days.
Now, the 28-year-old is sharing her story to raise awareness of the cold sore virus and how it can affect newborns. "I don't want parents to be paranoid, but it's something they need to know about," she tells Essential Baby.
"The majority of babies don't get it, even if they're exposed to the virus, and I know we had extremely unlucky circumstances. The specialist said he only sees about two cases a year. But it can happen, and parents should know that it's something to be aware of."
The tragic timeline
Baby Eloise was born via emergency caesarean at almost 39 weeks after Sarah's blood pressure started rising to dangerous levels. She was placed in the special care unit as her mum recovered from a blood transfusion, and they were discharged from hospital after four nights in hospital.
As the days passed, Sarah noticed her daughter wasn't eating much and was difficult to wake for feeds, but she put it down to the drugs she had needed during the birth and her recovery. A visiting midwife was concerned and recommended they take her to hospital.
"We went back to hospital on the Sunday," she remembers. "And Tuesday was the day when everything went pear-shaped. Her liver was enlarged and started to fail. She wasn't getting enough oxygen on her own.
"They were doing tests but didn't know what was causing it."
It was only when doctors started debated over sending Eloise to Brisbane or Townsville hospitals for specialist treatment that Sarah realised how serious it had all become very quickly.
"That's when we knew we had a very, very sick little girl on our hands," she says. "Even the nurses were stunned – one of them told us she hadn't realised she was this sick. No one did."
The doctors saw some improvement in Eloise's liver by Tuesday night, but by the following afternoon she was still dangerously unwell – they knew there was more to her illness. She was then airlifted to Mater Hospital Brisbane.
Eloise's condition continued to deteriorate as her heart, lungs, kidney and liver all began to shut down. "She was on [life support] but we were told it was just to buy her time," Sarah says. "It wouldn't make her get better."
After countless tests, doctors realised that the common cold sore virus was behind the baby's condition. By then it had already done too much damage. A staph infection which led to a brain cyst was the final straw for Eloise's tiny body.
She passed away in her mum's arms on November 25 at less than a month old.
Getting answers
It's thought that around 90 per cent of adults carry the herpes simplex virus in their bloodstream, which means they have been infected with it at some point. Of those, around one-third experience cold sores, small blisters around the mouth or chin.
The virus is passed on via kissing or touch, and is not airborne. Those with the virus can pass it on even when they don't have a visible cold sore.
Professor Cheryl Jones, a paediatrician and infectious diseases specialist at Westmead Children's Hospital, told ABC Tropical Queensland that it's rare for babies to be infected with the virus, saying there are probably only around 10 cases a year in Australia. It can, however, be fatal, as baby Eloise's case shows.
"Most commonly [it's passed on to babies] during delivery, although sometimes it happens after delivery from the hands of a care giver," she told ABC.
Sarah says she has been tested and does not carry the virus, so her daughter must have picked it up from someone else. Doctors said she was most likely infected within a day or two of birth.
"We don't know who passed it on her to – we didn't have any visitors in hospital because I wasn't up to it," she says. "So we are grateful that it wasn't an immediate family member."
It's common practice for hospitals to ban nurses with cold sores from caring for babies.
The odds of a baby suffering from the virus are so slim that a specialist reassured Sarah that if she was to fall pregnant again, the baby would almost certainly not get sick in the same way.
"He said the chances of it happening again would be one in a million," she says.
Still, she wants parents to be aware of the possible dangers associated with the virus.
"Make sure you wash your hands and take care with hygiene," she says. "I wouldn't want anyone else to go through this.
"It was just all so unexpected."
Comments