NEW MUM Jo Lane should have spent Mother's Day playing happily with her baby boy.

But her world turned upside down when 13-month-old Louis was suddenly taken ill.

Jo, of Wigginton Road, York: "We noticed Louis wasn't himself and that he was very sleepy that day, which is not like Louis at all; he's the worst sleeper in the world."

"He didn't want his milk and although it was extremely cold, he had a temperature and later developed two large rashes on his arms.

"We took him to A&E, although I wasn't too worried because he was very with it and even started to pick up and get better."

But doctors at York Hospital had to give Jo the news every parent dreads: her son had meningitis and septicaemia. In fact, paediatric consultant Robin Ball became so concerned about Louis that he decided he needed intravenous antibiotics.

"Through the evening, as the meningitis and septicaemia started to take hold, his body started to shut down and that was when they started treatment for meningitis," said Jo.

Louis was kept in York Hospital's current room for extremely sick babies for three days, before being moved because another child needed the space.

The room is next to the children's ward nursing station, and to the relief of Jo and Louis's dad, Ian, they could tap on the glass to get attention.

Now Louis is fully recovered, and it is hard to believe looking at this happy little boy that his life once hung by a thread.

But Ian and Jo will never forget the amazing care and commitment of the doctors and nurses who brought him back from the brink.

"We owe them absolutely everything," said Jo.

"We were extremely lucky that they identified it when they did as it's very hard with meningitis and it has similar symptoms to if a child's a little bit sick or has a bit of a virus. It has to be treated straight away and it took over his body so quickly. He went from being all right to very, very severely ill in the space of about an hour.

"When you hear the word meningitis you never ever believe it's going to happen to you or your child. It was very touch and go but the staff never let us feel that we were going to lose him."

Now Jo is hoping the Guardian Angels appeal can fund two dedicated rooms where children like Louis can be treated. She says dedicated high-dependency rooms would make care safer.

She said: "We didn't leave that room for three days. It was a basic room near the nurses' station and they had to bring in all the monitors and then take them out again.

"When Louis was admitted, thank God, there was nobody else at that time in critical care. Obviously, we were moved out when somebody else had to come in, but luckily Louis was no longer at risk or infectious. If somebody else had have been in there then it could have been different.

"Also, we had to change the drip every hour and administer the drugs every hour and you want somebody there at the right time. Because we were so near the nurses' station we could just tap on the window and they would be there, but if we had been down the ward I think we would have been anxious and concerned.

"Just having a designated area is a real plus for nursing staff to be able to give them the opportunity to give the best possible care because it can be very manic for them at times."

Updated: 10:19 Saturday, October 15, 2005