A schoolgirl was left fighting for her life after her 'chicken pox' turned out to be a reaction to Covid-19 she didn't know she'd had.
Six-year-old Millie Denvers fell ill shortly after three other children in her class reported having chicken pox.
Her mum Elizabeth noticed a few spots on Saturday, December 12 and said Millie looked pale, and began vomiting and burning up with a temperature of 39.9 degrees.
Just two days later the schoolgirl was sleepy, had lost her appetite, vomiting and crying in pain.
Mum Elizabeth Denver, 36, said she grew concerned that the spots she thought were chicken pox were not blistering - and called her GP on Tuesday morning.
Doctors told the worried mum to call for an ambulance, and when a paramedic rang back she was told to take little Millie into hospital, as the wait for an ambulance would be long.
Millie was admitted to Worthing Hospital around midday and transferred in an induced coma to Southampton Hospital around 9pm on Tuesday December 15.
She remained in the coma for two days.
Staff told Elizabeth and dad, Glen Denver, 40, that Millie had a condition called Pims TS, a reaction to Covid-19 which she must have carried a couple of weeks before with no symptoms.
Elizabeth said: "I was really freaking out.
"My mum is a nurse, and when I phoned her from the hospital to tell her what was happening she started crying, then I knew things were really serious.
"Before they put her in the coma Glen asked if she could die, and the nurse said it wasn't looking good but couldn't actually say.
"We had no idea she had carried Covid.
"Until she got sick on Saturday 12 she had been completely normal, and she's a really active little girl.
"She had been going to school and doing everything she usually did.
"All her symptoms were consistent with chicken pox, one of her sisters vomits whenever she has a temperature, but when the spots didn't start blistering it worried me.
"She was in so much pain in the car you couldn't touch her.
"I had to carry her into the hospital and hold her up, because she had gone all floppy."
Elizabeth explained medics couldn't make sense of Millie's symptoms at first.
Her tongue had gone a thick white colour shortly before they arrived at the hospital, which is usually consistent with a throat infection, but her throat was fine.
Blood tests revealed Millie's liver and kidneys were struggling, and she was on fluids within a couple hours of arriving.
Elizabeth said: "At first they could see that she had an infection somewhere but they couldn't work it out.
"They hadn't seen this before.
"The Pims ts attacks all the organs and bone marrow, her kidneys were very damaged"
Elizabeth says only 5 percent of children who carry Covid get Pims ts and doctors told her Millie would need to be transferred to Southampton hospital where she would be placed in an induced coma "to give her organs a rest and help her body recover".
Elizabeth added: "When they transferred her she was asleep, with tubes everywhere, and strapped to a trolley.
"My own heart was beating so fast and I felt sick, I couldn't lose my little baby. I felt like I couldn't breathe.
"I wasn't allowed to travel in the ambulance with her because of Covid, I just couldn't deal with it, I needed to be with her."
Millie was in Southampton for eight days with mum Elizabeth at her side while dad Glen looked after Millie's sisters Elsie, 9, and Felicity, 12 at their home in West Sussex.
She was moved to a high dependency unit for Friday, to a ward on the Saturday, and back to Worthing on the evening of the following Tuesday, December 22.
Millie was home for Christmas, on Wednesday 23rd, and has recovered quickly and fully with the help of physiotherapy.
Elizabeth said: "It was a heartbreaking relief to hear her laughing with her sisters on Christmas Eve."
