Our son Lloyd is 15 and has always been a healthy child apart from suffering from ADHD, ODD & some Autistic tendencies. On the 20th January 2013 Lloyd complained of a headache so we gave him paracetamol and he went to bed during the night he started vomiting and the next day got diarrhoea.  I rang our GP who prescribed some anti-sickness medication but the next morning Lloyd had a rash, I didn’t like the look of on his shoulder so I rang the GP and asked for a home visit.  By the time he arrived Lloyd had a few more spots so the GP sent us to our local children’s hospital who started treating Lloyd for suspected meningococcal septicaemia.

During the night he had a scan and was found to have a leaking heart valve so the next day we was rushed to PICU at the Evelina where Lloyd had an MRI Scan and lots of other tests;  it was discovered he also had Endocarditis, he was very poorly at this time the infection caused him to suffer two minor strokes, hallucinations and it was very scary for his dad and myself.  On the 27th January 2013 Lloyd underwent open heart surgery to repair the heart valve and have the vegetation scraped away this went well then he had to stay on IV antibiotics for 4 weeks and is still taking a cocktail of medication.