My 9-month-old son has swine flu
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Northern Ireland's youngest sufferer: Jay Norcott was diagnosed with swine flu over the phone by a GP
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A Northern Ireland father has described how he shook with terror after his baby son was diagnosed with swine flu.
Damien Norcott (29) revealed his family’s “nightmare” after nine-month-old son Jay fell ill and was diagnosed with the virus this week.
The Carrickfergus man said their only child burned up so much from the flu it felt like he’d been “pulled from the oven”.
Mr Norcott, his partner Fiona Allen (24) and Jay have been completely housebound for almost a week now after being ordered not to venture out.
Little Jay began displaying the symptoms early this week and was diagnosed by a GP over the telephone.
“He wasn’t very well on Monday, coughing and sneezing a lot,” Mr Norcott said.
“He was crying and very hot, waking every half hour and screaming. He was burning up, just like he had been pulled from the oven.”
The youngster was put on Tamiflu drugs and is recovering well — to the relief of his anxious parents.
“We were scared when we found out, we were both shaking,” he said.
“When he (the doctor) diagnosed it my partner just put her head in her hands. I had the shakes because it was very worrying.”
As Mr Norcott spoke of his son’s illness, the championship hopes of an Ulster GAA team hung in the balance after a number of players and management were caught up in a swine flu scare.
The Down Minors, due to play in an All-Ireland quarter-final next weekend, have had to cancel training after several players came down with “flu-like” symptoms.
Up to 15 players and four team officials are suffering from an illness which is being treated as a swine flu scare.
Down were narrowly beaten by Armagh in last weekend's Ulster Minor Final, but all the Armagh players have been given a clean bill of health.
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As a mother of a nine month old baby myself, I was most disturbed to read your headline article yesterday. Firstly, how could a GP be sure this child had swine flu by a telephone call, without carrying out a test to confirm H1N1 or seeing the child? My baby has run temperatures of over 40 on 2 occasions with a cough etc, usually coinciding with teething. At least she was seen by a doctor without delay to rule out meningitis,each time diagnosed with a non specific virus! I find it worrying that a baby can be prescribed tamiflu which he may not have needed, which in itself has a string of side effects, and his family may have been housebound unnecessarily. Also the flu helpline is not intended for babies under 1, although this case was advised by an out of hours doctor on call. I think there needs to be a clear policy for doctors treating this age group and babies should be tested for the disease to ensure they are being treated appropriately. He may have never had swine flu at all!
Posted by Julie | 26.07.09, 09:08 GMT
Get well soon Jay
and everybody else too.
Eat Healthy !
xx Mary
Posted by Mary C. | 25.07.09, 20:58 GMT
This child was 'diagnosed' with swine flu over the phone??!!-cant really be done can it-to know if anyone is suffering from this particular virus requires a blood test-which to my knowledge cannot be performed over the phone!
More people die every year from the 'ordinary' flu than have of swine flu-people in positions of power-i.e politicians,doctors etc seem to be creating unnecessary public panic-why??
Posted by rachel | 25.07.09, 17:07 GMT
This story is again proof that deaths resulting from catching this virus are still highly unlikely if you are generally healthy. I'm in no doubt it is still worrying for anyone who catches it or if a member of their family catches it, particularly a young child, but the evidence is that the vast majority of people will make a full recovery.
Posted by Liam | 25.07.09, 13:52 GMT
I hope that baby Jay makes a quick recovery and that his parents come out off this ordeal okay. I am in Bangkok at the moment and swine flu is almost always top of the news. A conference that my wife was meant to go to last Sunday was cancelled because of this flu. Half the people here are wearing face masks which really don't provide much protection. This is another nightmare that no doubt humans are responsible for.
Posted by James | 25.07.09, 03:56 GMT