Tilde Ålstig, 10, contracted a cold with a sore throat just before the Easter weekend this year. Mother Aurelija Ålstig took her daughter to the health service but was sent home with cough medicine. A few days later, the daughter’s heart was close to giving up.
“She was connected to a life support machine for 11 days”, says mother Aurelija Ålstig.
In 2023, a total of 32 people in Västerbotten County were affected by an invasive group A streptococcal infection. If you do not receive treatment, sepsis, also known as blood poisoning, is eventually caused. This year, 45 have already been affected in Västerbotten county and Tilde is one of them.
Tilde was taken to the emergency department in Umeå from Åsele by ambulance, but she did not stay there for long. She was in such bad condition that she was immediately treated by an ECMO machine. A heart and lung machine that oxygenates the blood when even your own body cannot do it. The same day she was flown down to Stockholm.
“I slept for two weeks”, says ten-year-old Tilde Ålstig.
An uncertain future
While she was sedated, the doctors did not know if she would survive and if she did, it was not certain that she would have full brain capacity. There was also talk of amputating one of the legs.
Mother Aurelija Ålstig still finds it difficult to put into words what the family has been through. But she is disappointed that the hospital in Åsele did not take her concerns about her daughter seriously when she sought care the first time.
“My children have been sick several times, but this time I felt that I could not handle having her at home”, says Aurelija Ålstig.
She should possibly report the incident.
New guidelines for antibiotic use
The Public Health Agency has now come out with new guidelines about being more generous with antibiotics for, for example, strep throat as it has been seen that more people have suffered septic shock.
How does it feel to know now that you will be more generous with antibiotics?
“It could have been stopped earlier and I sought help. Even though Tilde couldn’t speak because of a sore throat, they sent me home with cough medicine”, says Aurelia Ålstig.
1323 people throughout the country were affected in 2023 and this year 959 people have been affected.
Tilde’s case will now be reviewed
Niklas Vilhelmsson, director of operations in Åsele, Dorotea and Vilhelmina says that he cannot comment on specific cases, however he says that they work based on the public health authority’s guidelines.
“I will bring in an external medically responsible doctor from Vilhelmina who will look at the case”, says Niklas Vilhelmsson.
