Baby Dana was born a happy, healthy girl.
She was breastfeeding well and putting on weight.
At 11 days old, she developed a blocked nose and was unsettled at night. Dana’s parents acted quickly and saw the GP, who diagnosed a cold and prescribed saline drops. When she was three weeks old, Dana developed an occasional cough, like clearing her throat, and appeared to gag at night. Little coughs, runny nose, a bit unsettled, but appeared well during the day.
Her parents returned to the GP, who assessed Dana each day and tested her for whooping cough and other respiratory viruses. After her fourth visit, Dana’s test results confirmed  she was positive for whooping cough, and the GP admitted her straight to hospital.
Ten minutes after arriving, Dana had her first coughing fit where she coughed violently for nearly two minutes, turned blue and needed oxygen. This occurred up to 10 times an hour throughout the night, and her parents and two nurses held oxygen to her face to keep her breathing.
Dana’s parents learned there was no cure, and had to watch the Pertussis take its course. Dana was put in a perspex headbox, which provided oxygen and humidified her airways, was fed her mother’s breast milk via a tube inserted in her nose and received extra fluids via a drip. Wires monitored her pulse, temperature and oxygen levels, and she was given antibiotics to stop her transmitting the infection and prevent pneumonia. The doctor told Dana’s parents she could go home when she could recover from an attack without oxygen, but that she would continue having coughing fits for many months.
But, on the third day at hospital, Dana developed pneumonia and she was placed on a ventilator and airlifted to intensive care. She was stable, but her parents were advised she would stay on the ventilator for a week and was at risk of secondary infections, and collapsed or perforated lungs. Dana had blood tests every half hour and mucous was suctioned from her lungs
On the fifth day, Dana developed Rapid Invasive Pertussis, where the whooping cough toxins suddenly attacked her major organs. Dana’s blood pressure plummeted, while her white blood cell count skyrocketed. The medical team consulted experts worldwide and completed two blood transfusions. After ten hours, Dana’s parents began to hope as her blood pressure increased, but then watched in horror as the alarms sounded and she went  into  cardiac arrest. The busy room became silent as Dana was declared dead at 6.45pm. She was only 32 days old.
Nobody knows where Dana was infected with whooping cough. It may have been at her sibling’s school or preschool. A loving relative or friend, or a complete stranger may have unknowingly passed the infection on.