A baby who survived the “worst meningitis case” a doctor treating her had seen in 25 years is set to return home.
Brave one-year-old Kia Gott is improving day by day since having her four limbs amputated after contracting a rare strain of the killer disease.
She has been in hospital since September and her parents were at one point sent a letter by medics who said they were confident that Kia wasn’t going to make it.
But hopes were raised when a consultant told them earlier this year that the tot would be allowed home which they say “felt like we won the lottery”.
Following a meeting with doctors at Bradford Royal Infirmary, West Yorks., last week, the family have now been given a date for the tot to return home on a day release basis.
If it goes well, the family can bring her home more regularly, according to Kia’s father Paul Gott.
Paul, 35, said: “Once she has been home once and it goes ok we can have her back pretty much everyday.
“She is doing a lot better, things went a bit backwards when she moved to BRI but she has come back around now.
“She is prone to epilepsy now so she is having a drug for that, so that is the main thing now.
“She is definitely not deaf, but as Kia is being brought off the drugs it is becoming apparent she is probably blind and brain damaged, and won’t be able to move by herself.
“It is heart-breaking but she is still breathing which is the main thing, and now its just going to be about giving her the best quality of life we can.”
Paul discovered a rash on his daughter’s face, neck and chest when she fell ill in September last year.
He noticed the discolouring of his daughter’s skin after going to check on her in the middle of the night.
Paramedics arrived but her veins had collapsed, so they had to drill into her tiny shin to give her emergency drugs.
Kia was then rushed to Bradford Royal Infirmary where medics told her family it was meningitis and she was not likely to survive.
Specialists told the family it was the worst case of Meningitis C septicaemia they had dealt with for a quarter of a century.
Kia contracted the condition before she could receive the Men C vaccine, which is administered to infants at about 12 months old.
The government stopped the vaccination for three-month-old babies last year.
Concerns were raised that she may also be left brain damaged, blind and deaf.
The tot’s crushed parents were then told the devastating news that all four limbs would have to be removed.
The family, from Wyke, West Yorks., have had to move into a larger house in order to take Kia home.
But the move has put further stress on Paul, his wife Vikki Mitchell, 30, and their two other children, elder brother Kayden and sister Elsie.
He added: “We’ve been given a new house by Bradford Council but it was a bit rundown, so we’ve been doing a lot of work, it’s been like DIY SOS and we’ve had loads of help from everyone.
“We’re going to need an extension because we will need a bedroom downstairs because we will have to sleep with her.
“It is going to be life-changing, it already has been life-changing, and it is going to be emotional when she comes home because it has been a long time since she first went in.”
Wellwishers have donated more than £36,000 to the family through a crowdfunding page to support the family in the future.
It will be the first time Kia has been home since she was first admitted in September last year when she was ten months old.
