WITH hindsight, Nicole Farmer knows she should have insisted on staying for further tests when her newborn son was rushed to hospital three years ago. She knows she should have trusted the mother’s instinct which told every fibre of her being something was deeply wrong with Maison.

But hindsight is 20/20. Instead she took the infant home.

Had he remained under observation, bacterial meningitis – which is not always easy to spot in the early stages - may have been diagnosed in time. As it was, Maison suffered irreversible brain damage.

“That was the moment that changed his life,” says the 22-year-old from Highworth.

“He could have lived a normal happy life but instead he went down that route. It’s a hard situation. But it is what it is now and we’ve accepted it.”

Maison was born prematurely and remained in hospital for nine weeks before his parents Nicole and Luke Mayall were allowed to bring him home for the first time.

A healthy baby, he was thriving when suddenly one night in March 2012, he began crying uncontrollably, refusing to be fed.

At their wits' end, Nicole and Luke drove their son to the Great Western Hospital where a paediatrician tested his reflexes before saying he could not find anything the matter with him.

Maison was transferred to the children’s ward.

“I just knew something wasn’t right,” recalls the mother-of-three.

“We were told by the doctors that they couldn’t find anything but that they could keep him in and do a blood test. But it was late, the doctor said a blood test was not necessary so we went home.

"If we had known at the time, we would have kept him in and it would never have got to the stage it did.”

The following day, Maison was still refusing his bottle, only letting milk trickle down his lips. He grew limp, struggling for breath. The only sound coming from him was a regular grunt.

The couple returned the Great Western Hospital. One cursory glance at their son as they pulled up outside A&E and a nurse picked up Maison before dashing towards the doors.

“I thought ‘Oh my god, what’s going on?’,” says Nicole. “But I still didn’t realise how severe the situation really was.

"You watch these things on TV, you never thing it’s going to happen to your family. Maison was put on a breathing machine.

"We were in the waiting room when my partner and I overheard a doctor on the phone say ‘he’ couldn’t breathe and that they didn’t know what else they could do. Straight away I knew he was talking about Maison. I said to Luke, ‘He’s going to die, he’s going to die’.

“After a while they said we could go in his room. A nurse was next to him, poking him every three seconds. She said it was to remind him to breath. I asked if he was going to die. I panicked, they just said, ‘If you want anybody to see him, I would get them here now.’”

Maison suffered numerous lung punctures and was eventually transferred to Bristol Children’s Hospital where he was formally diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord.

His organs had started to shut down as his body strained to fight the infection. He suffered a series of fits. He was finally put in an induced coma.

“We were told that if he did make it he would have severe brain damage – he had stopped breathing too many times.”

Against all odds Maison pulled through.

But as feared he had suffered irreversible brain damage. Nicole and Luke were warned his eyesight would be impaired but that the full after-effects of meningitis would not be truly known until he grew older.

“We were just happy he was alive but it was still a shock. He was born healthy and that was taken away just like that. It was hard to come to terms with. When you find out you are going to have a boy, you imagine the football days, the girlfriends. And something like this happens and you start asking yourself, ‘Is he always going to be in nappies, is he ever going to play football or have a girlfriend?’

“But we didn’t have a choice. It was thrown at us and we to deal with it.

“Now that he is three and half, the problems are becoming more obvious. You just have to make the best of it for Maison.”

Twelve weeks into her pregnancy Nicole was diagnosed with group B strep, bacteria which can sometimes be passed on to the baby through the birth canal during labour. Though unusual, GBS is the most common cause of severe infection in newborns.

Nicole now believes this may have been a leading factor in Maison contracting meningitis.

The little boy now suffers from cortical visual impairment caused by brain damage. His head is below the average size due to a condition known as microcephaly. Last month, he started having fits. His mental age is estimated to be between 12 and 18 months and his speech is limited to 30 words, many of which he uses in the wrong context.

“It’s going to be a long road,” concedes Nicole, who has two other children, Dexter, one and half years old and Harper, seven months. “The gap between his mental age and real age will get bigger and when he’s older he’s going to be like a child.

“As he gets older his behaviour is more challenging. He gets frustrated quite a lot. He can’t communicate so he starts screaming. I understand why.

“We need to be realistic about the situation. I worry about the future. I think about what’s going to happen when he’s 18. He’s not going to be able to live on his own, or have a flat. But what will be, will be.

“He makes progress every day. With the severity of the brain damage they didn’t expect him to be walking or eating with his fingers. But he can. I feel really lucky.”

Over the past few months Nicole has strived to raise awareness of the tell-tale symptoms of meningitis to save parents undue heartbreak.

Although uneasy about the future, Nicole is focused on taking Maison as far as he will go and ensuring he thrives surrounded by a supportive family.

“He is definitely a fighter,” beams Nicole. “He is a happy boy and he adores his sister. He can have the whole room in stitches. He is really curious and he likes to do the same things as other children; he just has to do them in a different way. As long as he’s happy and he gets the support he needs from his family nothing else matters.”

To find out more about the condition visit Meningitis Now’s website, www.meningitisnow.org

FACT FILE

• Meningitis is the inflammation of the membranes that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord. It can be caused by many different organisms, including bacteria and viruses.

• 10% of bacterial cases result in death.

• 15% of those who survive bacterial meningitis are left with severe after-effects such as brain damage, hearing and sight loss, and where septicaemia (blood poisoning) has occurred, loss of limbs and scarring.

• Bacterial meningitis kills more UK children under the age of five than any other infectious disease.

• Viral meningitis is usually less serious than bacterial meningitis but can still leave people with long-lasting after-effects, such as headaches, fatigue and memory problems.

• Meningitis can affect anyone, of any age, at any time.

• As babies and toddlers can’t express how they are feeling, it can be easy to miss vital signs and symptoms of meningitis.

• Symptoms include high fever, cold hands and feet, vomiting, a red rash that doesn’t fade when a glass is rolled over it, convulsions and seizures, drowsiness, difficulty breathing or waking up.