Ava Mear from Befordshire in England, suffered an extreme allergic reaction to a sore throat, last January.
The five-year-old “swelled like a blueberry” and was immediately diagnosed with a rare reaction to the sore throat bacteria, Strep A.
Ava was rushed to hospital when it was noticed she began to breathe heavily and her heart began to fail four times, as the infection took hold of her body.
Medics told Ava’s parents to say their goodbyes to their daughter, as it didn’t look likely that she would recover.
But by a miracle Ava fought back, after her heart stopped for the fourth time. But the little girl still had to be hooked up to an artificial lung and heart machine, to help her breath.
10 weeks on, Ava’s father has revealed that she is recovering well and believes Great Ormond Street hospital is the only reason his daughter is alive today.
“If she had been at any other hospital which hadn’t had the ability to bypass her heart she wouldn’t be here now. My wife was like mush in my arms. All that was going through our heads was how we were going to tell Alfie that one day he had a perfectly healthy sister and the next day she’d gone to hospital and died.”
A Great Ormond spokesperson said that Ava is the only person in the last two years to go into toxic shock as result of sore throat bacteria.
