Coronavirus: Baby rushed to Victorian hospital with COVID-19

A Melbourne mother has a warning for Australians after her six-month-old baby contracted COVID-19 and quickly became very ill.

Melbourne mum Nikki Boyle and her 6-month-old daughter Stevie Thomas. Stevie contacted Corona-virus and is now recovering at home.

A Melbourne mother has shared her family’s ordeal after her baby daughter contracted coronavirus from her father.

Little Stevie Thomas, who turns six-months-old this Monday, was rushed to Casey Hospital in Melbourne’s southeast on Wednesday when she started struggling to breathe, a few hours after testing positive to coronavirus.

Her mother, Nikki Boyle, said Stevie had been an otherwise healthy baby, and like most mothers would be, she struggled seeing her daughter fall ill.

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Melbourne mum Nikki Boyle and her 6-month-old daughter Stevie Thomas. Stevie contacted coronavirus and is now recovering at home.

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“It was very scary because she’s so young … it was really confronting … it’s hard to hear that high-pitched, distressed baby scream,” she told the Herald-Sun.

Nikki took her daughter to the same hospital the night before after becoming concerned when she noticed Stevie had symptoms including a runny nose, cough and difficulty breathing.

She was tested but discharged from the hospital at around 4am on Wednesday morning with doctors suspecting a regular infection.

A few hours later Nikki got a call saying her baby actually did have COVID-19.

Stevie started deteriorating following the positive test.

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Stevie’s condition deteriorated further throughout the day as she struggled to breathe and refused to drink.

At around 7.30pm an ambulance was called to take the baby back to the same hospital, where health care workers (whom Nicki had nothing but praise for) were shocked the baby had contracted the illness.

“They said they had suspected cases in children there before but this was the first positive one,” Nikki said.

More than 200 children under four years of age have tested positive in Victoria so far, the youngest patient just 10 weeks-old, but it’s not clear how many actually became sick or required hospitalisation.

Stevie was discharged again on Thursday evening and is recovering at home.

The family are in isolation after a positive result for her husband Josh Thomas, and now baby Stevie.

Melbourne mum Nikki Boyle and her 6-month-old daughter Stevie Thomas, her partner John Thomas, and two-year-old Cameron Thomas.

It’s believed the baby’s father contracted the virus through accidental contact at his job.

The couple’s two-year-old son Cameron hasn’t tested positive but Nikki said there was a chance he could contract it too.

She said her experience should serve as a warning to others to do everything they can and should to prevent the spread of coronavirus.