An Australian mother is warning parents to make sure they vaccinate their children against meningococcal as her baby daughter faces losing her fingers and toes to the disease.
Tahlea was diagnosed six weeks ago when Chelsea Cocking woke up at 4am to her eight-month-old struggling to breathe and with a fever.
She was taken to a Geraldton hospital and flown to Perth Children’s Hospital by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Doctors told Ms Cocking she should say goodbye to her daughter.
But thanks to the quick response and awareness by the 23-year-old mother the baby girl will survive.
Doctors say she will have all her fingers and toes amputated.
"It was out of the blue, really scary to watch this happen to your happy, healthy child and it took the innocence out of her and I don't want this to happen to anyone else's kids," Ms Cocking told 9 News.
“No family should have to go through what Tahlea and our family has gone through.”
Tahlea is likely to spend six months at Perth Children’s Hospital and the family of five will move to be close to her.
Because she is less than 12 months she was not eligible for the government’s free vaccine.
Forty-five percent of children between one and four are not vaccinated, figures show.
There have been 36 cases of the meningococcal disease in Australia this year and 17 have been in children aged four and under who were not vaccinated.
This story comes after an outbreak of a meningococcal strain in New Zealand.
There have been 29 cases of MenW this year and six people have died from it.
Seven of those cases and half of the deaths have been in Northland.
As of next Wednesday free vaccinations will be offered to teenagers and children under four.
Symptoms of the disease included fever, vomiting, a sore neck, sensitivity to light and a rash.
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