Miracle mum Amelia shares Charlie’s birth story:

Charlie, born at 36 weeks with complex medical conditions and spent time in Perth Children’s Hospital NICU for 6 weeks with respiratory distress syndrome.  

He came home for one week when my best friend (a respiratory nurse) noticed he had a very slight tracheal tug. He deteriorated over the next 24 hours, vomiting after every feed. 

We presented at ED and after monitoring him for 4 hours and keeping down one feed for 30 mins they sent us home due to the shortage of beds due to number of children with RSV. We presented again 12 hours later and after waiting in ED for 15 hours finally got a bed on the orthopaedics ward. I remember pressing the call bell and waiting over 90 minutes for the nurse to answer. Luckily, I am a nurse so was able to run his nasogastric feed myself! 

I was relieved that I was able to board in Charlie's room (unlike NICU) as I was devastated at the thought of having to leave him again. We stayed in for 5 nights until he could tolerate oral feeds and wean off the oxygen. The doctors were surprised how well Charlie recovered giving that he was ventilated for respiratory distress a few weeks earlier. Turns out he caught RSV from his 3-year-old brother who likely caught it at daycare. We spend Charlie's first father’s day in hospital and we received a lovely goodies bag from the hospital for Dad.  

We are so lucky to now have access to the new vaccine to help reduce the number of RSV infections over winter and take the pressure of the hospitals.