The mum of a little girl who almost died from a terrifying flesh-eating infection sparked by chickenpox has backed an NHS vaccine announced today.
Leanne Passey, 32, said her daughter Reign developed a potentially fatal strep A infection after a bout of the common childhood spot-causing bug.
Reign spent three weeks in hospital and had to undergo a lifesaving four-hour operation to remove the flesh-eating bacteria which almost took her life in July 2022.
Thankfully the little girl made it through her ordeal which is now only marked by a scar on her right side. Reign tells people she got her war wound from “winning a fight against a crocodile”.
Mum Ms Passey said she “1000 percent” backs the call from NHS advisers that all children in the UK should be given a chickenpox vaccine at 12 and 18 months of age.
The advice, issued by the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, has also recommended a temporary catch-up programme for older children.
Ms Passey, from Dudley, West Mids., said: “If the vaccine will prevent any child from getting what Reign got then I support it 1000 percent.
“I wouldn’t want any mother to go through it. It’s horrendous, you never expect it to happen to you until it does.”
Reign came down with chickenpox on July 4 2022 and initially appeared fine, Ms Passey says. But three days later the mum noticed her daughter had a temperature and was low on energy, symptoms of strep A which is an infection which children who have had chickenpox recently can develop.
Other symptoms spotted by Ms Passey included a red ring on the skin around sores that had appeared on Reign’s side. A doctor recommended attending A&E immediately and Ms Passey rushed her child to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
She said: “I’d gone from a child with chickenpox to her needing to go in for major op, I was screaming and I thought there’s a chance she was going to die.”
Reign was then taken to intensive care, put in an induced coma to manage the pain and given breathing support with medics having to leave her wound open initially because of how the infection spreads.
Ms Passey added Reign is now “fully healed” and “doing very well.”
She said: “She’s healed pretty much, she’s obviously got some long terms effects, which we will keep having to go back to the doctors for.
“Reign is here and that’s all that matters. If this vaccine would potentially save lives then I fully support it.”
