Off The Record

Mom Thinks Her Son Has An Ear Infection – Then The Doctors See His Fingers And Panic

Published on November 18, 2022

Australian couple couldn’t wait for their new bundle of joy to be born. Josh Roberts and Katelyn Galea were extremely excited to welcome Archie into this world.

In the beginning everything looked great and Archie was growing into a healthy baby. But when Archie was just five months, the horror for the parents began. Archie was gravely ill…

Doctors diagnosed Archie with an ear infection, and they said it’s nothing to worry about, but Archie’s infection only became worse by the day.

First, Archie’s lips turned grey, then his fingers turned dark blue. He developed a rash on his chest and his parents were gravely concerned with all the symptoms that appeared all of a sudden. They put him in the car and drove him straight to the hospital.

After 40 minute drive that looked like eternity to Josh and Katelyn, they finally arrived.

The horrible news arrived: Archie had potentially fatal meningococcal infection.

Meningococcal disease refers to any illness caused by bacteria called Neisseria meningitidis. These illnesses are often severe, can be deadly, and include infections of the lining of the brain and spinal cord (meningitis) and bloodstream.

Archie was immediately hospitalized and put on a ventilator. He received a blood transfusion and was treated with antibiotics.

For a while, Archie was between life and death situation.

“This is something you only read about in the paper or see in the news. You would never expect it to hit someone so healthy and so happy,” Josh, Archie’s dad wrote on Facebook. “This is one of the hardest times I have ever had to deal with. I have never ever loved something, someone with such passion and love. It doesn’t matter if you are the toughest person on this planet walking into that hospital room and seeing you like this rips me apart.”

It took a while for Archie to stabilize. Then he was taken off life-support.

But Archie had to spend several months in the hospital to recover. In order to cover his expenses, the parents started a GoFundMe page and allowed people to help them with the recovery process. The goal was AUD $5,000 and the response of the people was enormous! They gathered AUD $15,000, 3x more than they needed and closed the funding.

Thanks to more than 300 donators, Archie was able to get the help he needs to recover from the ravaging infection.

Archie is felling much better, but still has a long way to fully recover. However, with his bravery and will, as well as the love and support of his family, Archie is making progress daily.

Josh and Katelyn are beyond grateful to all the donators and the courage of their son.