Brave parents of 15-day-old girl who died from whooping cough share her painful final moments

THE heartbroken parents of a girl who died from whooping cough have shared her painful final moments.

Little Evie-Grace was just 15 days old when she passed away from a contagious bacterial infection on May 3.

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Her parents described the symptoms she had felt in recent days as her health rapidly deteriorated following reports that five babies had died from whooping cough this year.

Evie-Grace’s father, Reece Lewis, said his daughter was “perfectly fine” for the first few days of her life.

“It was around the seventh day when we really started to worry,” he said. ITV News.

“The last two or three days of her life was when everything really got worse and she deteriorated so quickly – it was unreal.”

Whooping cough — also known as whooping cough — is a bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes that can be especially dangerous for young babies.

Starting with cold-like symptoms and progressing to unpleasant coughing spells, the illness gets its name from the distinctive whooping sound some people make when they become out of breath between coughs.

Reece recalled how distressing it was to watch little Evie-Grace get sicker.

“The worrying sign is when they are coughing, turning red and then 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 she is so blocked that she can’t get the cough out.

“She’s struggling to breathe and turning red.”

Mom Caitlin added that her daughter brought up “secretions” every time she coughed.

It’s common for someone with whooping cough to produce thick mucus, notes the NHS.

The UK’s Health Security Agency has warned that a drop in whooping cough vaccinations could be to blame for rising rates of the disease.

The free NHS vaccine is offered to pregnant women between 16 and 32 weeks, as well as babies aged eight, 12 and 16 weeks as part of the 6-in-1 vaccine.

Because babies are particularly vulnerable to whooping cough in the weeks before vaccination, getting the whooping cough vaccine as a mother can pass immunity to your baby, reducing the risk of illness by 92 percent.

Caitlin had the 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 mothers.

Eighty percent of infant deaths since 2012 – 21 out of 26 – occurred in babies whose mothers were not vaccinated against whooping cough.

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Of the mothers of five babies who died between January and March this year, three are believed to have received the preventive vaccine.

Evie-Grace’s parents said they didn’t know 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 get the vaccine during her pregnancy, but I didn’t know what it was or what it was for.”

Now, parents want more people to understand the signs of whooping cough.

They are also fundraising to the children’s hospital that helped Evie-Grace in her final days.

‘PLAYING CATCH-UP’ OF THE PANDEMIC

Whooping cough saw a huge increase in cases in the first three months of this year – 2,793, up from 853 cases and one death recorded throughout 2023.

Experts have warned that the number of deaths could continue to rise throughout the year. next Few months.

Writing for the Daily MailSaleyha Ahsan said: “There is inevitably a lag between deaths and official reported numbers, so as early as mid-May the number of deaths is considered higher.

“And with pediatric intensive care units now at ’emergency capacity’ because of pertussis and measles – which means, in essence, that there are too many cases – that number could very well, tragically, rise.”

Meanwhile, Paul Hunter – professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia – has warned that we could be on the brink of the worst whooping cough outbreak in 40 years.

Declining vaccination rates against whooping cough have been blamed for the soaring number of cases in England.

Just 61 percent of pregnant women in England were vaccinated in 2023, down from 71 percent in 2020.

Meanwhile, the number of two-year-olds who completed the six-in-one vaccination in September 2023 was 92.9 percent, compared to 96.3 percent in March 2014.

But other factors also contribute 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 peak in the UK was in 2016, meaning a year of peak cases is “overdue”.

All over the country Covid-19 lockdowns also played their part.

Mary Ramsay, UKHSA consultant epidemiologist, told ITV News: “We are trying something of a recovery now, we are getting the cases we would have had during the pandemic.

“Additionally, as there has been no circulation, this means there is less immunity in the adult population and older children and therefore it is spreading in this older age group.

“Unfortunately, these individuals may be transmitting the infection to vulnerable people.”

The pertussis vaccine is routinely administered as part of:

• 6-in-1 vaccine – for babies aged 8, 12 and 16 weeks
• 4-in-1 preschool booster – for children aged 3 years and 4 months

If you are pregnant, you should also get the whooping cough vaccine – ideally between 16 and 32 weeks.

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