Mom Speaks Out After Losing Newborn Son To Preventable Infection
A mother was heartbroken after her newborn son died of a common bacteria that causes a sore throat.
Blake Holmes was born at Worthing Hospital in the U.K. in 2009. However, Blake caught the treatable Group B strep bacteria just 16 hours after he was born. He died a mere 25 hours after he was born, the Mirror reports.
“One minute I had a newborn baby, and then they were telling me he was seriously ill and he was being taken to a different hospital – but he never made it,” Tania Holmes, Blake’s mom, told the Mirror.
Unfortunately, Blake died from complications of the bacterial infection, which can cause a sore throat or tonsillitis.
“It was horrific, I buried my son before I was even due to give birth to him,” Tania, 31, said.
Now, Tania hopes to warn other couples of the entirely preventable bacteria that spread to her son. If she had been tested for signs of the bacteria, doctors could have given her antibiotics that could have stopped it from spreading to Blake.
Tania noted that it would have been nice to know about the risks before her son’s birth.
Group B Strep is generally passed from mother to child during labor. About one newborn baby is infected each day in the U.K. and about one baby dies from it each week. While most babies survive, some can later develop autism, blindness, meningitis and septicemia.
Tania is now campaigning for a change in the law that would force doctors to test mothers for the potentially deadly bacteria. Currently, the test is not required by the National Health Service.
Tania has also launched a local campaign and petition to encourage pregnant women to privately test for the bacteria, the Worthing Herald reports. She hopes the petition will go national.
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