Little Eloise Lampton was born healthily on November 1 via caesarean but died just 24 days later after becoming infected with the herpes virus, which proved fatal. Her devastated parents, Sarah Pugh, 28, and Douglas Lampton, don’t even know who unknowingly passed the infection onto their newborn daughter.
Talking to DailyMail, Ms Pugh said:
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‘Doctors initially thought it was a feeding issue. When we came home she just wanted to sleep… she wasn’t a crying baby.’
But Eloise lost almost a kilo in the week after her birth and her health started to deteriorate quickly.
She was taken to Brisbane’s Mater Hospital and was placed on a machine to keep her alive as doctors scrambled to find out what was wrong.
‘It all happened so quickly, like within hours. She was in the hospital and we thought she was fine, then that night we were told she might not survive the night.’
Doctors informed Eloise’s parents, who have three other children, that it was the herpes virus causing their daughter’s illness after two days on the machine.‘I was shocked. I was devastated to know she was born healthy and then this happened. They thought it could have come from me, but I didn’t test positive to the disease. It was passed on through a cold sore. You have to be in contact – kissed or touched. We didn’t have any visitors at hospital. It could have been from anyone.’
Eloise’s parents held out hope their baby would recover, but when she caught a staph infection in her blood doctors said their was nothing more they could do. Ms Pugh said:‘Eloise had a very large legion on her brain, her organs had shut down and they couldn’t be sure how she would recover again. She fought right until the end. Five times in one week I was told she wouldn’t have made it. Every time she would pull through. She defied the odds. She put up a very good fight.
Ms Pugh hopes Eloise’s death will help others to be more aware of the herpes virus and how it can effect newborn babies. She said:
‘Sometimes you don’t even know when you’ve got a cold sore. You never know what’s going to happen. It’s not just cold sores. Any virus could do this to a baby.’
