Brave parents of 15-day-old baby girl who died of whooping cough share her heartbreaking final moments
THE HEARTBROKEN parents of a baby girl who died of whooping cough shared her heartbreaking final moments.
Little Evie-Grace was just 15 days old when she passed away from the contagious bacterial infection on May 3.
Her parents described the symptoms she experienced in her final days as she rapidly deteriorated in health, following reports that five babies have died of whooping cough this year.
Evie-Grace’s dad, Reece Lewis, said his daughter had been “perfectly fine” in the first few days of her life.
“It was around day seven when we really started to worry,” he told ITV News.
“In the last two to three days, of her life, it was when it really went bad and she just deteriorated so quickly – it was unreal.”
Whooping cough – also known as pertussis – is a bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes that can be especially dangerous to young babies.
Starting off with cold like symptoms and progressing into nasty coughing bouts, the illness gets its name from the distinctive whoop sound some people make when they gasp for breath between coughs.
Reece recalled how distressing it had been to watch little Evie-Grace get sicker.
“The worrying sign is when they’re coughing, going bright red and then going silent.
“That’s what Evie was doing. Her first cough would be a normal cough and then she would go silent, and you can hear that hear that she’s so blocked up she can’t get the cough out.
“She’s struggling to breathe and going bright red.”
Mum Caitlin added that her daughter had brought up “secretions” every time she coughed.
It’s common for someone with whooping cough to bring up a thick mucus, the NHS notes.
The UK Health Security Agency has warned that a drop in whooping cough vaccine uptake could be to blame to rising rates of the illness.
The free NHS jab is offered to pregnant women between 16 to 32 weeks, as well as to babies at eight, 12 and 16 weeks as part of the 6-in-1 vaccine.
As infants are particularly vulnerable to whooping cough in the weeks before they can get a jab, having the whooping cough vaccine as a mum can pass on immunity to your baby, reducing their risk of illness by 92 per cent.
Caitlin did have a whooping cough vaccine before little Evie-Grace was born.
But UKHSA warns that most infant deaths from whooping cough tend to occur in babies born to unvaccinated mums.
Eighty per cent of infant deaths since 2012 – 21 out of 26 – were in babies whose mothers weren’t vaccinated against whooping cough.
Of the mums of five babies that passed away between January and March this year, it’s thought that three had received the preventative jab.
Evie-Grace’s parents said they weren’t aware of how dangerous whooping cough could be before their baby succumbed to the illness.
Reece said: “I didn’t really know anything about this whooping cough to be honest.
“I know Caitlin had to have the vaccine during her pregnancy, but I didn’t know what it is or what is was for.”
Now, the parents want more people to understand the signs of whooping cough.
They are also fundraising for the children’s hospital which helped Evie-Grace in her final days.
‘PLAYING CATCH-UP’ FROM THE PANDEMIC
Whooping cough has seen a huge surge in cases in the first three months of this year – 2,793, up from the 853 cases and one death recorded during the whole of 2023.
Experts have warned that the number of deaths might continue to rise over the next few months.
Writing for the Daily Mail, Dr Saleyha Ahsan said: “There is, inevitably, a lag between deaths and official reported figures, so already, by mid-May, the number of deaths is thought to be higher.
“And with paediatric intensive care units now on ‘surge capacity’ because of both pertussis, and measles – which means in essence there are many cases – that number may well, tragically, rise.”
Full list of symptoms of whooping cough
WHOOPING cough is a bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes.
The first signs of the condition tend to be similar to a cold – such as a runny nose, a sore throat, red and watery eyes, and a slightly raised temperature.
After about a week, other signs start to appear. These include:
- Coughing bouts that last for a few minutes and are worse at night
- “Whoop” sounds as your gasp for breath between coughs
- Difficulty breathing after a coughing bout
- Turning blue or grey (children)
- Becoming very red in the face (adults)
- Bringing up thick mucus, which can make you vomit
- Bleeding under the skin or in the eyes
- Feeling very tired after coughing
The cough may last several weeks or months.
Babies under six months have an increased risk of problems such as dehydration, breathing problems, pneumonia and seizures.
Older children and adults may experience sore ribs, hernia, middle ear infections, and urinary incontinence.
Source: NHS
Meanwhile, Paul Hunter – a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia – warned that we might be on the cusp of the worst whooping cough outbreak in 40 years.
Waning whooping cough vaccination rates have been blamed for the spiralling case numbers in England.
Just 61 per cent of pregnant women in England were vaccinated in 2023, down from 71 per cent in 2020.
Meanwhile, the number of two-year-olds who completed their six-in-one vaccinations as of September 2023 was 92.9 per cent, compared with 96.3 per cent in March 2014.
But other factors are also contributing to the rise in infections in England and other countries, experts say.
The UKHSA said the bug peaks every three to five years and the last spike in the UK was in 2016, meaning a peak year in cases is “overdue”.
Nationwide Covid-19 lockdowns also played their role.
Dr Mary Ramsay, a consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA told ITV News: “We’re playing a kind of catch-up now, we’re getting the cases we would have got during the pandemic.
“Plus, because there’s been no circulation, it means there’s less immunity across the adult population and older children and so it’s spreading in that older age group.
“Unfortunately, those those individuals may be passing the infection on to people who are vulnerable.”
The whooping cough vaccine is routinely given as part of the:
- 6-in-1 vaccine – for babies at 8, 12 and 16 weeks
- 4-in-1 pre-school booster – for children aged 3 years 4 months
If you’re pregnant you should also have the whooping cough vaccine – ideally between 16 and 32 weeks.