An Adelaide mother has recounted the traumatic hospital rush she went through with her newborn - who almost died after contracting the deadly disease parechovirus.
Ali Tessier's son Louis is one of many babies across Australia to have contracted the disease, which is on the rise there.
Ms Tessier said it was instinct that told her her crying seven-day-old son needed to go to hospital, Nine News reports.
"I just started to have a bad feeling that something wasn't right," she said.
Initially, it was hard to tell for doctors what was wrong with baby Louis, with only a minor temperature.
"An hour later he had a huge seizure, he stopped breathing, and they had to rush him up to intensive care," Ms Tessier said.
"It was just so frightening because every time a doctor would come in I think, 'oh my gosh, what are they going to say and am I going to take my baby home?'"
Louis ended up spending six days on life support, and is still recovering from impaired eye sight nine months later.
"It's really heartbreaking because you bring a perfectly healthy baby into the world and now we just have to hope that he can learn to see," Ms Tessier said.
Parechovirus cases are on the rise across Australia this year, with more than 200 hospitalisations since December.
Symptoms include fever, irritability and diarrhea.
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