A MUM has released a shocking picture of her young son critically ill in hospital, after coronavirus led to him developing pneumonia.
Tommy Marsh, three, from Birmingham, fell sick at the end of March, just days after leaving nursery, his mum Sarah Marsh told Fabulous.
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But by March 23, he was critically ill in hospital having tested positive for coronavirus.
Sarah took this shocking picture which she wants Fabulous readers to see, so they don't underestimate the impact of the illness.
Tommy was examined by intensive care doctors and the family first thought he would be put on a ventilator but he needed just emergency oxygen and is now recovering in isolation at home.
"It's been horrific," his mum said, explaining how he spent six days in the high dependency unit where she was allowed to isolate with him.
Tommy already had a tough start, being born prematurely at 34 weeks and developing bronchitis which impacted on his breathing at just two months old.
"But him battling coronavirus was worse," the 32-year-old explained.
"Even though I watched him as a newborn baby be bagged [into a plastic bag to replicate the heat of a mother's womb] and take two hours to stabilise watching him go through covid-19 was so much worse.
"I am fuming with all the sunbathers out and about this weekend.
"You shouldn't need the government to put us on complete lockdown, you shouldn't need the police to fine you or tell you to go home, you shouldn't need the government to bring in the army."
Sarah told how her boy, who has siblings Daisy, Leia, Kayde and Billy, first fell ill with a "wheezy cough" which no one in the family linked to coronavirus in March.
"The week before the cough started it was a normal week," she explained.
"He was at nursery and had an eye test at the hospital.
"His dad had a bit of a cough a few days before him and his brother started coughing.
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"It didn't even cross our mind it could be covid-19."
As the days progressed he actually started to improve, but then began to deteriorate.
Sarah called their GP, who had previously provided medication for him, on March 23.
She called 999 and he was blue-lighted to hospital.
"We thought he had started getting better on the Monday he was admitted," Sarah said.
"I spoke to my GP on the phone because the steroids and antibiotics he had been given hadn't helped.explained.
"She spoke to Tommy on the phone and noticed he was quite breathless when talking so sent an ambulance to the house who then took us to hospital.
"[By this point] he was critically ill and reviewed by an intensive care unit] doctor because they thought he might need ventilation.
"He was on high flow oxygen whilst in the high dependancy ward.
"Without oxygen he couldn't maintain safe oxygen levels."
Now with Tommy at home, Sarah wanted to dispel the myth you can't sit with your child in hospital. "They’ll put you in isolation with them and you won’t be able to leave but you absolutely can stay with them," she explained.
"Because Tommy co-sleeps at home he was allowed to co-sleep in hospital too.
"Tommy was vulnerable due to prematurity and I always knew when it hit him it would make him really poorly … but the doctors have told me to assume the rest of the house have had covid-19 as we’ve all been displaying the most minor symptoms and we genuinely wouldn’t of known it was covid we had had if it wasn’t for Tommy testing positive.
"But people shouldn't be reckless…. it can happen to anyone."
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