Mamma Mia! - Layla sings after waking from meningitis coma
- 00:01:41
- ITN
Mamma Mia! - Layla sings after waking from meningitis coma
A three-year-old girl stunned doctors after pulling out of a five-day coma - while singing the words to Mamma Mia. Layla Towsey, from Gidea Park in Essex, was taken last month to Queen's Hospital, Romford, after her mum, Katy Towsey, 23, noticed a rash on her leg. She had developed meningitis and just hours later suffered a heart attack. As the tot was transferred by ambulance to St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London, Ms Towsey was told Layla had a very small chance of pulling through. Ms Towsey said: "Layla had been staying with my mum Susan when she began being sick and was delirious. When I picked her up she didn't recognise me and had a really high temperature. "I also noticed a rash on her leg which was really dark. I took her to Queen's where the doctor said it was probably a heat rash and not to worry. But I told them I wanted to see a paediatrician. "Layla was just so delirious. She was saying weird things and I knew something was wrong. We were then told it was probably meningitis. Within two hours she had stopped breathing and she'd had a heart attack." Ms Towsey, who was joined by Layla's dad Jay Malik, 28, and her partner Paul Volckman, 27, added: "Before they put her in the ambulance we were told to give her a kiss goodbye. It was an awful moment. "She made the journey but when we got there the life support machine started beeping. I just ran off. I couldn't cope with the fact she was about to die." Layla, who was diagnosed with meningitis B and meningococcal septicaemia, spent the next five days unconscious and fighting for her life in intensive care. "We'd been preparing ourselves for bad news as the life support machine was keeping her alive. Even when doctors took her off life support and reduced the drugs she was on, we didn't know how badly disabled she would be. "But on the Sunday morning I could hear her singing Mamma Mia quietly. I couldn't believe it. I knew immediately she was going to be OK." Within a few days Layla had been taken off life support and was breathing on her own. Layla - who Ms Towsey describes as a "miracle" - learned the words to the Abba hit after seeing the film starring Meryl Streep. Ms Towsey now supports Meningitis UK and its Search 4 a Vaccine Campaign which raises money for research towards a vaccine for Meningitis B - which accounts for almost 90 per cent current cases. Meningitis is difficult to diagnose as it has similar symptoms to cold or flu. Classic symptoms are a headache, stiff neck and shying away from bright light but others include difficulty supporting own body weight, fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, confusion and drowsiness. Common symptoms of meningococcal septicaemia include aching limbs, cold hands and feet and a rash which starts like pin prick marks but rapidly develops into purple "bruising".
ITN | May 26, 2009
