Brave Hartlepool girl facing latest health battle during lockdown

The 11-year-old from the Brierton area has just pulled through a life-threatening struggle with sepsis which saw her in hospital for six days.

She was taken to the University Hospital of North Tees after a spike in her temperature and an inability to breathe.

She was so poorly that doctors told her parents she could have died from organ failure if she had not received treatment when she did.

Now Talia is at home and in lockdown as she recovers from the latest health scare.

But mum Clair Foster, 45, fears that people who ignore the coronavirus Government advice are putting her family at risk, especially Talia who already suffers from a string of conditions.

She said: “She just could not breathe, she had spikes in temperatures. Her body went cold and she was shivering. She was on IV, antibiotics and she had ulcers in her mouth.

“She was in hospital for six days.

“She was getting injections in her legs because they could not get it in her hands.”

Talia is on the mend but Clair said: “They told me she could have died from organ failure.”

She must stay indoors for 12 weeks because of her latest health fight and other conditions including her low immune levels.

Talia had hundreds of seizures a day when she was first born and doctors told her mum she may not survive infancy.

In the last few years, she has been registered blind and diagnosed with scoliosis, autism and dystonia; She has suffered bronchitis and has a reduced immune system;

In her short life she has also tackled epilepsy, brain cysts and numerous chest problems.

Clair added: “She has fought from the moment she was born. She has fought everything and I hate to think that something like the coronavirus could take someone from us.”

Talia had just started as a pupil at Catcote Academy and was ‘absolutely loving it’.

But now she is in lockdown and Clair said: “She has had a few meltdowns because she can’t understand why we are all off.”

She and husband Brendan, 43, occasionally have to take it in turn to venture outside to get essential supplies for the family. But that means risking coming into contact with other people.

Son Callum, 24, also has to go to work at a chemical plant which must remain open because of the service it provides.

But Clair said it was only ‘selfish’ people who were deliberately ignoring the stay-at-home advice and putting everyone at risk.

“We are sanitising everywhere,” said Clair.

But she added: “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done in life, you can’t control this. It is scary. If it is going to take you, it is going to take you.”

The UK restrictions have also brought heartbreak for Claire’s daughter Gabrielle, 15, who has ‘studied so hard’ for her GCSEs and was in her final year at English Martyrs School and Sixth Form College.

She and fellow pupils have ‘had it all taken away from them’, said Clair.

For now, Clair is doing everything she can to protect her family. “I have got to do what I can do to try and prevent as much as I can.”

But she urged others to do their bit by heeding the Government stay-at-home advice.

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