IT was the moment in which gut instinct became a life-saver. Little Maddox McCabe was just three months old when his mother Kirsty noticed that he was struggling to take his milk.
She “had a feeling something was not quite right” so raced him to accident and emergency at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary (DGRI). Within 15 minutes a team of doctors was battling to save him after it became clear he was having difficulty breathing.
A locum GP had given him antibiotics for a chest infection just three days earlier and told his mother to bring him back if his condition worsened.
But Maddox, who was born with a collapsed lung when he got stuck in his mother’s pelvis, developed lung infection bronchiolitis caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and spent the next week sedated and on full life-support.
And had Mrs McCabe, 35, and husband Chris, 40, from Dumfries, not taken him to hospital when they did, he would not be alive today.
“I asked what would have happened if we had not gone to hospital on the Sunday and had waited until the Monday and the doctor said ‘it wouldn’t have been a hospital or an ambulance you’d have been calling, it would’ve been a coroner’.
“That put the frighteners up us. It just shows how fast acting RSV is and that we were right to follow our gut [instinct].
“I just had a feeling something was not quite right. He was still laughing and smiling. But he was struggling to feed and he never refuses a bottle – normally he’s crying for more.”
Mrs McCabe, who was told at 15 she would never have children due to a medical condition, is now sharing her story to raise awareness of RSV and let other parents know the signs, which include loss of appetite, a runny nose, cough and high temperature.
She said: “RSV season is just around the corner and I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what we did.
“Until then, we had never heard of it. A lot of people think it’s just a runny nose and a cold, but it’s not. It can be a lot more serious.
“It’s actually a good thing just now that everyone is wearing masks.”
Maddox was initially treated at DGRI last December.
But, when his breathing continued to worsen, he was rushed nearly 80 miles to Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children where he received specialist care.
He spent the next week in an induced coma and hooked up to a ventilator before he was finally allowed back home on Christmas Day.
Mrs McCabe, who tried for nine years to conceive, said: “The day he woke up he just smiled – I don’t think I will ever forget that.
“For that week we’d go in and one minute his oxygen would be turned down and the next they’d have to put it back up and we were like, ‘is he ever going to get any better?’”
Now Maddox, who also faced a brave battle for life when he was born, is like any other 13-month-old who is learning to walk and talk.
“It’s been hard, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. We feel so blessed to have him in our lives,” said Mrs McCabe.
“He’s a little riot – he’s into everything, and after all he’s been through, he never stops smiling.
“Even when he was refusing his feeds and when he had the oxygen mask on in hospital he was always smiling. It just shows you how tough he is. He’s our little miracle.”
She was told by three different doctors she would never have children as she was overweight due to a rare metabolic disorder coupled with polycystic ovary syndrome, which affects the function of the reproductive organs.
“I was only 15 when I was told I’d never conceive naturally,” she said. “But I did, after about nine years. I was taking part in Dry January in 2018 and that’s when I found out I was pregnant. So my Dry January ended up lasting nine months.
“I couldn’t believe it. I went the colour of a sheet, I was so shocked. I would look at the test and it just wasn’t adding up in my head.”
And she is convinced losing almost three stone in weight was the key.
Mrs McCabe admits that, even now, she has to pinch herself to make sure she’s not dreaming.
“When I’m in bed I still have to go through and look at him,” she said. “It’s surreal... But if it wasn’t for the NHS he wouldn’t be with us today and, for that, we will always be grateful.”
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