By Phil Coleman

Published at 01:00, Monday, 07 May 2007

SHE’S the kind of kid whose sunny smile and cheeky sense of humour would cheer up just about anybody...

At just three years old, Olivia Story radiates happiness as she plays at home, whether pushing her doll in its pram or bouncing gleefully on her tiny trampoline.

Bubbly, intelligent, and full of mischief, she is understandably adored by her family: parents, Kim, 27, and Mike, 31, and brother Joshua, 11, and sister Amber, eight.

Ten months ago, things looked horribly different for Olivia and her family: her life – and her family’s happiness – were almost snatched away in the most cruel way.

With terrifying speed, their world was shattered as Olivia was struck down by the brain disease meningitis.

Incredibly, despite losing both her legs below the knee, and an arm, she has fought her way back to health, learning to laugh again, and mastering her “special” legs so completely she can now walk and even jump on her trampoline.

Olivia owes her life to the vigilance of her parents and the dedication of medics in Carlisle and Newcastle.

Kim and Mike, from London Road, Carlisle, agreed to tell their daughter’s remarkable story because they want to raise awareness of this deadly and horrible disease.

The family’s ordeal began on July 12 last year.

Like most families, they were happily settled into a family routine, Olivia spending around ten hours a week at Munchkins nursery on Wigton Road, Carlisle, while Kim Brown worked part-time for the Children’s Services Department of Cumbria County Council.

Independent, sociable, and confident, Olivia loved her time at nursery, where she could chat and play.

She was fine when Mike dropped her off there in the morning. By 3pm, when he collected her, she’d become a little tired, tearful, and a little grumpy.

“She was prone to ear infections and we thought she was coming down with another one,” recalled Kim.

“She had a bit of a temperature so I gave her Calpol. After that she picked up, until she was well enough to start jumping on the trampoline.”

Later that night, at 10pm, Kim and Mike heard Olivia cry out from her bed. She’d been slightly sick. By this time, Kim and Mike suspected the culprit was a stomach bug.

Concerned but still not too worried, Kim made the crucial decision to sleep with Olivia, setting her alarm so she could wake every two hours to check on their daughter.

She said: “I didn’t want her to be sick in bed without us knowing. At 4am, she was fast asleep.

“But when the alarm woke me at 6am, I saw straight away that she looked grey, listless and limp. Her lips were blue, and she was struggling to breathe, wheezing. Her eyes were half closed.”

Tears in her eyes, and fighting back panic, Kim called out to Mike, telling him to call the emergency doctor as she instinctively checked Olivia for spots or rashes: she found nothing but two tiny marks, nothing significant.

Mike said: “It was obvious there was something really wrong with Olivia.

“Cuedoc immediately called an ambulance. It was here in minutes.”

In the ambulance, the paramedics immediately gave Olivia antibiotics – the first and crucial line of defence for anybody with meningitis. Incredibly, it was only in the last couple of years that they won the right to administer the drug.

Kim and Mike’s memory of the hours that followed are a mixture of fear, hope, and horror at the destructive power of meningococcal septicaemia, the deadly strain of meningitis that was now overwhelming their daughter.

One feature of the disease is massive damage caused to blood vessels by bacteria as they die, and release poison into the body.

This can cause blood to leak under the skin, producing a telltale dark rash.

“In casualty, Olivia was still conscious, and as she lay there, asking for an Ice Pop, we could see this rash appearing all over her body and spreading, her skin turning black in front of us,” said Mike, a computer engineer.

Medics at The Cumberland Infirmary stabilised Olivia, putting saline drips into her to restore her fluids.

Their hope that Olivia might recover was not realised and doctors decided her best hope was treatment at the paediatric intensive care unit of Newcastle General Hospital.

They prepared her by putting her on a ventilator, but secretly, the doctors believed her chances of surviving the journey were slim.

“It was like it was happening to somebody else,” said Mike, recalling the shock of those first few hours.

In Newcastle, a small army of doctors and nurses battled for the next week beat the disease, putting Olivia on dialysis to help her kidneys and pumping her full of drugs.

Pumped full of fluid, Olivia’s body swelled grotesquely, leaving her barely recognisable.

On the first night of her stay in Newcastle, her heart stopped, but was thankfully restarted by a nurse.

Over the days that followed, her body was wracked by septicaemia, blood poisoning caused by the bacteria toxins that were causing catastrophic damage to Olivia’s blood vessels, particularly her legs.

Starved of oxygen-laden blood, her legs and one arm steadily turned black as the tissue died.

“It was absolutely horrific,” said Mike.

Kim recalled: “By this stage, we knew that Olivia was going to survive, but it was clear that she would have to have amputations. It’s strange, but the hand she didn’t lose was the one we kept holding and rubbing to keep it warm.

“We knew our lives were going to change, but we were just so pleased that she was going to survive.”

There were many more scary moments: fears that Olivia may have suffered brain damage, thankfully unfounded, and the awful prospect of telling their daughter that she had lost both legs and part of her left arm.

As she slowly regained consciousness, Olivia was in such a state of shock that at first she would not speak.

By her bedside, day and night, Mike and Kim did their best to bring some normality into her life: reading stories, playing with her teddy.

“We told her that she’d been very poorly, and her feet and hand were very poorly, and had gone to heaven to make her better,” said Kim.

Four weeks later, after spells in the Royal Victoria Infirmary, and another stay at The Infirmary in Carlisle, Olivia was well enough to come home for the first time.

Slowly, gently, surrounded by the love and support of her family, and friends, and health professionals, Olivia has made a remarkable recovery.

Mike said: “She’s very strong-willed, very determined, with a good sense of humour. She likes taking her leg off and putting it on her arm. That’s the kind of thing that she does.

“If somebody says to her where’s your arm gone, she’ll say a crocodile’s eaten it. She chooses not to wear her prosthetic arm, and when we first got her home she wouldn’t wear her prosthetic legs.

“She screamed her head off if you tried to put it anywhere near her.”

With encouragement, and the promise of a holiday, she has mastered what Kim and Mike call her “special legs” so well that she can even run, play on the bouncy castle, and climb the stairs.

In those first few week, Olivia would constantly ask to have her own legs and arm back. Now her legs are rarely taken off.

Kim said: “We could not be more proud of her. It’s been hard for the whole family, but we all love her. Olivia is totally amazing: a very brave little girl. She’s looking forward, and wants to go swimming, to learn to ride a horse, and to go in a helicopter.

“She’d see the air ambulance landing when she was in hospital. When she’s older, if she wants to rock-climb, the hospital’s disabled services department have said they’ll design legs to fit round her lifestyle. There’s no reason why she won’t be able to do all these things.”

Kim and Mike are acutely aware that it was their vigilance that made the difference between life and death for their daughter, allowing her to get the penicillin early enough to save her life.

Mike said: “Most people know meningitis is bad but often they don’t know just how horrendous it can be and what it can lead to; that you can lose limbs and just how life-threatening it is.

“We’re speaking about what happened to Olivia because it’s a very under-reported disease and people don’t appreciate its real dangers.”

For any parent who fears their child may be the next victim, the best defence is to act quickly, and if you are in any doubt, seek a second medical opinion.

Kim added: “There was a little boy in the RVI at the same time as Olivia and he had no symptoms apart from being listless. At the end of the day, parents know their children.

“If you’ve any suspicion that it might be meningitis, call the doctor right away. If the doctor says there’s nothing wrong, and you’re still not convinced, just keep pushing.

“Take your child to the hospital’s A&E department. It’s just not worth the risk of doing nothing. If we’d waited that morning, giving it more time in the hope that she might be alright because we didn’t want to bother anyone, Olivia would have died.

“Some doctors might get angry if you don’t accept what they say, but if you disagree, go to casualty. Get a second opinion. Your child’s life could depend on it.”

The couple said a heartfelt thanks to the medical staff who worked with Olivia, particularly paediatrician Dr Paul Whitehead, and staff at the Cumberland Infirmary and its disablement services department; to the many people who have raised funds for Olivia, who in the future will continue to need expensive prosthetic limbs, to Mike’s employer Torex Retail, and to people who have given up their time and effort to support and think about Mike and Kim and their family in anyway.

PColeman@cngroup.co.uk

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk