Birmingham City keeper Colin Doyle tells of meningitis ordeal
Aug 18 2010 by Andy Richards, Birmingham Mail
THE wife of Blues star Colin Doyle has spoken for the first time of their heartbreak after their baby boy almost died of meningitis.
The Birmingham City goalkeeper was forced to return home just days into the club’s pre-season tour in the Far East after seven-week-old Liam was struck down with the killer bug.
It was the second potentially fatal illness the tot had suffered since he was born prematurely in June with pneumonia.
Fearing the worst, distraught Becky made the agonising call to Colin after medics at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch diagnosed the condition as bacterial meningitis.
Today, the wife of the Irish International, spoke about the traumatic events which led to the youngest of three children being hospitalised.
“I didn’t know much about meningitis, all I knew is that people die from it or they lose limbs.” she said.
“I kept thinking how I had checked him all over for a rash and he didn’t have one. I was told there were different types of virus and a rash is not always a symptom.
“All I kept thinking was my son is going to die. He had been through so much already with the pneumonia, it was unbearable seeing him so poorly.”
Becky, aged 31, first noticed something was wrong with baby Liam a day before Colin, aged 25, was due to fly to Hong Kong on July 15.
She struggled with feeds but after an out-of hours check-up was told it was a systolic heartbeat – but nothing serious. When his condition failed to improve, Becky took him to a local GP but again was sent home.
Becky, who is also mum to Harry, aged seven and Ava, aged 22 months, said: “On the Thursday Liam was getting very tired and when I touched him he just screamed.
“This carried on through the night and every time I picked him up he was distressed. He was very cold but clammy to the touch and he carried on screaming, it was very high pitched.
“At 5.30am Harry, who was in my bedroom with Liam when I went to get a nappy, shouted for me because Liam was fitting.
“Then he turned a grey colour and by this point I was so worried. I rang family to come and get the children and rushed Liam to hospital.”
She said: “The hospital staff didn’t make me wait, they were absolutely fantastic – straight away they suspected it was meningitis. It came as such a shock as he had no rash and that’s what I was looking for. It is what everyone asks you when you call for medical advice.”
Becky sought medical guidance about whether to tell Colin, who was thousands of miles away. She said: “I didn’t want Alex Mcleish to think I would just call up to say ‘come home because your son is a bit ill,’ but at the point that the tests came back positive and Liam was so poorly that he had stopped breathing so I had to tell him.”
