Mom slams hospital for allegedly discharging 'dying' baby with rare infection
FILE. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)
FOX NEWS - A Salem, Oregon woman is warning others about an infection that can have fatal consequences for infants after she reportedly lost her daughter roughly seven weeks after giving birth.
Earlier in March, Ginger McCall’s first-born child, Evianna Rose, showed signs of developing group B strep disease. The bacterium is usually found in the intestines or “lower genital tract” in adults and is generally harmless. In infants, however, group B strep bacteria can be fatal; the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it is “a leading cause of meningitis and bacteremia in a newborn’s first week of life.”
In babies — especially those who have late-onset group B strep disease — symptoms typically include fever, difficulty feeding and breathing and lethargy, among other signs.
"She was making this really terrible mewing, moaning noise — like a kind of repetitive ... it was like a weak cry," McCall told Fox 12 of her newborn's symptoms prior to her untimely death.
Doctors normally test women for group B strep as they’re nearing the end of their pregnancy, or roughly around 35 to 37 weeks, according to the CDC. If a mom-to-be tests positive, (about 1 in 4 pregnant women carry group B strep bacteria in their rectum or vagina, says the federal health agency), she is given antibiotics intravenously during labor to prevent the bacteria from spreading to her child during birth.