Precious Katie’s a picture of health

Photo: Anthony Miller

Miracle recovery . . . Katie, who beat the odds against a deadly infection, with parents Mike and Alison.

Youngster defies the odds to beat killer bug

LITTLE Katie Carroll was given just hours to live as one by one her vital organs started to fail and she slipped into a coma.

Yet one year on, the resilient Failsworth youngster has fought a miraculous battle to make a full recovery — from an infection not even her parents dreamt she would survive.

The four-year-old’s story is one of hope, luck and defiance that has seen her come out fighting fit from the brink of death.

A slight sore throat was the only indicator of the infection, group A streptococcus, as Alison Carroll put her daughter to bed in May last year.

But come the morning her condition had deteriorated, she was suffering severe diarrhoea and felt dizzy.

Alison, (24), said: “We just rushed her straight to the hospital, burst past the queue and said she needed to be seen.”

Aged just three at the time, her delicate body was hooked up to drips, doctors rushed from across the hospital and she was induced into a coma.

Experts would later tell the worried parents that had they been any later, they would have lost her.

Eleven agonising days ensued as Katie, a pupil at St Mary’s School in Failsworth, clung to life while she was pumped with drugs.

Dad Mike Carroll, (28), said: “We were simply in bits. Within half an hour of being at the hospital the doctors told us to get all our family down as the outlook was bad.

“We just couldn’t contemplate leaving that hospital without her. It was unreal.”

She was transferred by ambulance from North Manchester Hospital to the critical care centre at the Manchester Children’s Hospital.

“We stayed with her in that room for the whole time, we didn’t sleep for the first four days,” added Mike.

“We kept being told that she might not make it through the night.”

Fears of brain damage were dismissed as the determined tot eventually woke from her coma.

The bacteria had got into her blood stream, bringing on toxic shock syndrome, organ failure and severe pneumonia.

Causing death in many cases, staff at the hospital were stunned by her bounce back to life from the infection.

Many have also had to have limbs amputated as a result.

She would later suffer another scare in October with a burst abscess on her lungs. Alison said: “She was just a normal child and you never expect anything like this to happen.

“We were so relieved when she opened her eyes, the first thing she did was complain that she had a nappy on.”

The family, who now live in Newton Heath, have vowed to raise cash for the Children’s Critical Care Fund at the hospital.

They have arranged a fundraising party for Sunday, May 1, at Kehoes in Oldham Road, Failsworth from 4pm.

Auctions, raffles and music performances will urge partygoers to get behind the cause.

Katie’s great-grandmother Beryl Bright, of Albert Street West, Failsworth, said: “We just can’t believe she made it . . . we’re so lucky.

“She would not be here without the hospital teams, even if we were millionaires and could have paid she wouldn’t have got better care.

“Katie is a bubbly, lovely child and she has never grumbled, she’s back to normal now but we will never stop trying to help out those that saved her life.”

To get a ticket for the fund-raiser, call 0161-682-5514.