Chilling lesson in mum’s meningococcal nightmare is take no chances

NIKITA Palmer knows the frightening reality of how fast meningococcal disease can take hold. The Burnie mum’s daughter Charlotte contracted the acute bacterial infection when just a toddler.

NIKITA Palmer knows the frightening reality of how fast meningococcal disease can take hold.

The Burnie mum’s daughter Charlotte, now 6, contracted the acute bacterial infection when just a toddler.

Ms Palmer said it took only 24 hours for her “healthy little girl” to lapse from giggling and jumping on the couch at home, to being critically ill in hospital.

Burnie toddler Charlotte Treloar in hospital. Picture: SUPPLIED

Charlotte had contracted meningococcal B. Picture: SUPPLIED

“I had Charlotte in my arms and she wasn’t moving, she wasn’t waking up, she wasn’t responding and I had absolutely no idea what was going on,” she said through tears.

“She went pale in the face and her heart rate was so fast you could see it beating out of her chest. It hit so quickly.

“Mums are always told to look out for rashes but don’t wait, it’s too late. When I got to the hospital, I was walking in with a near dead baby and she only had three little freckle spots.”

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Charlotte was struck down by the potentially deadly meningococcal B infection in August 2013.

“During the weekend she was very sleepy, wasn’t feeding and had red rosy cheeks but we thought it was something small, like a flu or virus,” Ms Palmer said.

“On the Sunday night, she started to power vomit and about 8am in the morning I called my mum and said ‘something is not right with Charlotte, I need to get her seen by a doctor’.

“I called the health line and they told me to wait until 1pm and if she still looked ill to take her to the hospital. If I had listened to the health line, I would have had a dead baby.”

Once diagnosed, Charlotte was immediately flown from the Launceston General Hospital to the Royal Hobart Hospital, where doctors told Ms Palmer that if she had waited another hour Charlotte may not have survived.

Nikita Palmer and her daughter Charlotte now. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

Ms Palmer thought Charlotte had been vaccinated against meningococcal just months earlier during her 12 month injections.

Infants aged 12 months and teenagers born between August 1, 1997 and April 30, 2003 are eligible for a free ACWY meningococcal vaccination.

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However, meningococcal B is currently the only main strain of the acute bacterial infection that isn’t part of a vaccination program in the state, costing parents up to $300 per child.

“I knew nothing about meningococcal, no one had ever told me about B strain or asked if I wanted my child vaccinated,” Ms Palmer said.

“Every child should have the B strain injection, you’re playing with a child’s life.

“The government need to hurry up and make it free because there are so many families out there who cannot afford it. How many lives or limbs need to be lost before the State Government acts?”

Babies and children up to the age of five years account for two-thirds of all meningococcal cases, according to Meningococcal Australia.

The disease is transmitted via mucus and generally requires close and prolonged contact with a person carrying the bacteria.

Ms Palmer will never know how Charlotte contracted the virus but has begged other parents to label their children’s drink bottles, pack separate lunch boxes and avoid mouth kissing.

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