Our beautiful, precious son Alfie passed away on 2nd Dec 2013. He was only 2 weeks old and had septicaemia.

After not feeding on Friday 29th Nov we took him to A&E at Halifax that evening, his vital signs were checked but nothing untoward was found. Four hours later, whilst we were waiting for a bed in the children’s ward, Alfie started to have fits or seizures. The doctor came and assessed him immediately, she was very concerned about his condition and suspected that he had meningitis. Much to our disbelief he was rushed to the intensive care unit and we were told he was very ill. They gave him antibiotics to treat the meningitis and drugs to control the seizures.

During the night he continued to have seizures and when he’d been stabilized the following evening he was transferred to Leeds General Infirmary so they could complete a lumber puncture test. After the transfer he spent the Sunday there being stabilised and we were hopeful that he would make it through. The following day we were confronted by a neurologist who explained that a CT scan showed that there was severe damage in Alfie's brain and he could not survive. Our decision to switch off the machines was heart breaking.

We are completely devastated and shocked that our precious boy could be affected so severely in such a short time. We were told Alfie had Gram Negative Septicaemia, having never known about the disease before we want to make other people aware and know what symptoms to look for.