Pacemaker baby battling MRSA
Updated on 13 May 2008
One of the youngest babies to ever have a pacemaker fitted is facing another battle after contracting the MRSA superbug, his father said.
Liam King had the device fitted to regulate the beating of his heart when he was just five-days-old, after his parents were told he would not survive without it.
But his father Andy King said that Liam, now ten-weeks-old, was fighting for his life again after the bug infected his pacemaker wound.
The baby's mother, Ann Collier, is at his bedside in Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.
Mr King, 26, of Cwm, Blaenau Gwent, south Wales, said: "At the moment he's very, very weak.
"They were going to operate ... to remove the pacemaker because they want to kill the infection, but they said it was 90% if not 100% that it would result in death.
"We've gone back to square one. It seems worse because we've bonded with him as parents and it's hit us hard. We don't want to lose him.
"He is making progress, I think he's responding to the antibiotics which is a relief. He had been doing so well, putting on weight, but this is a big knock again and he's still only little.
"What's worrying me and my partner is his body won't take this, but we're trying to stay positive - he's a miracle baby."
Mr King, who also has a one-year-old son Macaulay with Miss Collier, said he could not say where or when Liam contracted the infection, but that he was in the process of making an official complaint.
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