WATCHING your tiny baby slowly die in your arms just weeks after being born is every parent’s worst nightmare.
But that is what happened to Catherine Hughes and her husband Greg, after little Riley was diagnosed with whopping cough.
Catherine HughesRiley Hughes died after developing whooping cough[/caption]
Catherine HughesRiley passed away ten days before he would have had his first whooping cough jab[/caption]
Catherine HughesRiley died on March 17, when he was just 32 days old (Pictured: Big sister Olivia decorating Riley’s coffin)[/caption]
Tragically, he passed away just ten days before he would have been eligible for his first whopping cough vaccine, and two days before Australia rolled out the vaccine for pregnant women.
Catherine believes the vaccine would have saved his life.
Although it may sound like a disease from the Victorian era, according to new data from public health bodies, cases of whooping cough are rising in the UK.
The bacterial infection, known as pertussis and the ‘100-day cough’ due to its long-lasting symptoms, can cause severe coughing that can lead to vomiting and broken ribs.
Most people make a full recovery, but in babies under three months old up to three per cent may die. While most children under six months will require hospitalisation.
About one in 50 babies under one year will suffer seizures, and one in 150 will have encephalopathy (swelling of the brain).
Catherine, now 36, was shocked to find out her newborn baby had whooping cough.
“I thought it was a disease of the olden days,” the mum-of-two from Perth, Australia, tells Sun Health.
“I didn’t know of anyone who had had it”.
Data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) revealed 1,141 suspected cases in England and Wales from January to November this year.
This is compared with 450 for the same period in 2022 and 454 for 2021 – about a 250 per cent increase.
Experts say it could be a hangover from restrictions during the Covid pandemic when social distancing measures like masks, which meant fewer viruses circulated and immunity dropped.
Vaccination rates have fallen in the UK since the Covid pandemic.
The latest UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data on the maternal whooping cough vaccine programme shows that uptake of the jab has dropped to its lowest level in seven years.
Blue-eyed boy
Riley was born on February 13. 2015, a “healthly and, blue-eyed with soft blonde hair”, his mum says.
Catherine, a charity CEO, first noticed her son was unwell just two weeks after he was born.
“He started sneezing, his nose was runny, and he had a cough. I thought it was a cold. I wasn’t very worried,” she recalls.
A doctor came by the house to check on him and reassured Catherine and Greg, now 38, that Riley was “probably fine” and “lots of respiratory illnesses were going around”.
But over the next few days, Riley stopped waking up to eat, which Catherine says was unlike him.
“Even when I managed to wake him up to breastfeed, he was so sleepy he would just fall off my breast,” she explains.
It’s important for parents to know that babies don’t often make that sound. To me, it just sounded like a regular cough.
Catherine Hughes
The parents decided to take their son to the Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth, where he quickly deteriorated.
“Every day he was there, he just got worse and worse. His coughing got more severe, and his heart rate was high,” she says.
But at no point did Catherine hear the distinctive ‘whoop’ sound when Riley coughed, which is often associated with the bug.
“It’s important for parents to know that babies don’t often make that sound,” she says.
“To me, it just sounded like a regular cough,” she adds.
Doctors hooked Riley up to feeding tubes because he was sleeping all the time, and so could not eat on his own.
Fight for life
Four days later, doctors diagnosed him with whooping cough, which had developed into pneumonia, a lung infection.
They decided to put him on life support, including a ventilator which breathed for him, but it was too late; the bacteria had started to “take over his entire body,” Catherine says.
His kidneys, heart, and lungs were failing when doctors took the parents to one side to break the news that Riley would likely not make it.
“My whole world was crumbling, and my heart was breaking,” she says.
Two days later, the tubes keeping Riley alive were removed from his body, and he was placed in the arms of his mum while Greg crouched down next to them.
Their daughter, Olivia, 13, who was three at the time, came into the hospital to say goodbye to her baby brother.
“She gave Riley a quick cuddle and kiss before asking if she could go play. She never really understood the finality of his death until several months later,” the mum says.
Still clinging to hope, Catherine asked the doctor one more time if there was “even the slimmest chance” Riley might make it. But there wasn’t.
“We cuddled, cried, kissed him, and sang to him a lullaby as the life slowly left his body,” she recalls.
Heartbreaking goodbye
Riley died on March 17, at just 32 days old and ten days before he would have been old enough to get his first whooping cough vaccine.
In the UK, the whooping cough vaccine is given to babies at eight, 12 and 16 weeks – and since 2012, it has been offered to pregnant women.
Meanwhile, in Australia, babies are given the jab at six weeks, four months, six months, and 18 months.
Pregnant women have only been offered the jab since March 19. 2015, two days after Riley died meaning Catherine never got it.
“If I had been offered a whooping cough booster during pregnancy, there is a good chance Riley would still be with us today,” Catherine says.
Since Riley’s death, Catherine has made it her mission to get everyone vaccinated against whooping cough.
In 2015, Catherine and Greg founded the Light For Riley project, a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of vaccinations.
“We can’t protect Riley anymore, but we can certainly do whatever we can to protect and save the lives of others,” she says.
Whooping cough symptoms
WHOOPING cough (pertussis) is a bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes.
The first signs of whooping cough are similar to a cold, such as a runny nose and sore throat (a high temperature is uncommon).
After about a week, you or your child:
will get coughing bouts that last for a few minutes and are worse at night
may make a “whoop” sound – a gasp for breath between coughs (young babies and some adults may not “whoop”)
may have difficulty breathing after a coughing bout and may turn blue or grey (young infants)
may bring up a thick mucus, which can make you vomit
may become very red in the face (more common in adults)
The cough may last for several weeks or months.
Source: NHS
Catherine HughesDoctors hooked Riley up to life support (Pictured: Greg and Riley in hospital)[/caption]
Riley was born a healthy baby was blue-eye with soft blonde hairCatherine Hughes
Catherine HughesCatherine (pictured) believes Riley might still be alive had she been offered the vaccine[/caption]
Catherine HughesOlivia (pictured) was just three when she had to say goodbye to her baby brother (pictured)[/caption]
Catherine and her family, (left to right) Olivia, 13, Greg 38, Lucy, 7Catherine Hughes