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In November 2012 Isabelle was just 9 months old, I had just returned back to work following my maternity leave and Isabelle had settled into a new routine at a lovely new nursery of which she was loving.

On saturday 17th November we had enjoyed a lovely family day together with Isabelle showing no signs of being poorly. Late that evening she had a temperature and didnt sleep well. In the early hours of Sunday morning her temperature and breathing had gotten worse and we made an emergency apt at the Local Hospital. We were seen by an on-call doctor who was concerned with Isabelles breathing which was rapid and her chest was very sunken. He gave her some steroid medicine in case she was suffering from Croup. He spoke with the childrens ward in Winchester who advised us to bring her straight into the ward to be seen by the consultants.

Whilst be assessed by the consultants her breathing rapidly deterioated and we were rushed upstairs to theatre where she was put to sleep and stabilised. We were told the Paediatric Retrieval Service were on their way to collect her from Southampton. They consists of a highly skilled team who have specialist training in the transfer of sick children from other hospitals to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in Southampton.  When they arrived they spent what seemed like hours attempting to stabilise her before she was allowed to be moved.They advised us this was due to the infection being so bad in her windpipe they were struggling to get the breathing tubes in her.

She was placed in a special incubator and was hooked up to a multitude of machines ready to be taken by blue lights to Southampton.

Once she arrived on PICU she was seen immeadiately by the consultants and a multitude of tests were carried out to establish the cause of infection in her body. At this point we were still in a state of shock as she had detoriated so badly in such a short space of time.

We spent the next few days by her side waiting. We were told Isabelle was fighting Bronchiolitis, Parafluenza and RSV+1 (a massive respiratory infection) Isabelle spent 3 days on PICU before being transferred back to Winchester Hospital childrens ward. She spent the next 7 days here in quarantine, being given round the clock nebulisers, xrays and medication (and at one point almost being sent back to PICU) Once Isabelle's feeding tube was removed on day 9 and she was taking milk we were allowed to go home.

Isabelle remained at home and managed to fight the nasty infection and has since made a full recovery.

We will forever be grateful for the caring work of the amazing people we met along this journey.

We are raising money to help support the wonderful PICU team and to thank them for all there amazing work they did with Isabelle and all the other children they care for every day.

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