Parents Of Newborn With Life-Threatening illness Have An Important Warning

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A couple from Iowa is hoping for the best, as their newborn baby girl fights for her life in hospital.

And it’s all because of a virus the baby caught – by an innocent kiss.

“It’s horrific,” Nicole Sifrit said. “It’s one of the saddest things ever, and most of the time, I’m still in shock.”

On July 1, Nicole gave birth to their daughter named Mariana, and the couple got married on July 7th. However, just two hours after exchanging their “I do’s,” the newlyweds noticed something wrong with their week-old baby girl.

“Friday, we noticed she stopped eating and wasn’t waking up when we were trying to get her to respond,” Shane said.

The parents left their own wedding early to go to a Des Moines children’s hospital, where they learned that Mariana had contracted a life threatening virus called Meningitis HSV-1, caused by herpes.

Doctors say that the baby likely got it from a kiss, from someone who carries the cold sore virus but not necessarily through an open sore.

“They touch her, and then she touches her mouth with her hand,” Nicole explains. This is why doctors say diseases spread quickly in babies.

The parents both tested negative for the virus, so Mariana was sent to the neonatal intensive care unit at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines.

Her condition immediately worsened and “Within two hours she had quit breathing and all of her organs just started to fail,” her parents say.

Then Mariana got even more ill, and was airlifted from Des Moines to the Iowa City Children’s Hospital so doctors can “just constantly watch every vital sign,” her mom said. “She is currently on life support to help her by right now.”

Mariana isn’t giving up though.

“She has a kidney team, a liver team, a blood team, a neurology team,” her dad said.

But both parents are shaken up. “I always thought this stuff happens, and it’s a shame and never thought it would happen to me and was not prepared at all.”

They are now warning other new parents to “keep your babies isolated, don’t let just anyone come visit them, and make sure they are constantly washing their hands. Don’t let people kiss your baby, and make sure they ask before they pick up your baby.”

Doctors say that the best care scenario is for Mariana to stay in the hospital for at least another month because of the damage the virus has already caused.

If she survives, Doctors expect long-term health problems.

According to the Meningitis Research Foundation, people carry the herpes virus, without ever showing any signs or symptoms.