A little girl who was minutes from death after contracting the killer brain bug meningitis has made a remarkable recovery.
A priest was called in to give Amelia Lancaster the last rites and had just started to pray when her body began to stabilise and she pulled through.
The infection cut off the blood supply to her limbs, leaving them black. Doctors managed to save her legs but were forced to amputate part of her right hand.
Now, the brave three-year-old has made a full recovery after months of hospital treatment - and has learned to walk again and even catch a ball.
Her mother Melinda, 26, said: 'That day, Amelia developed a raging temperature and was screwing her eyes up any time she was near light.
'A doctor found a spot the size of a pin-prick on her tummy that wouldn't disappear under pressure. Then a rash appeared all over her body. It all happened so fast.
'She was taken to intensive care and put on a drip but she didn't react. I was absolutely terrified and felt so helpless.
'Doctors told us she didn't have long left so we called a priest and just as he was giving Amelia the blessing, her heart rate dropped.
'Before that day, I'd never been much of a believer in miracles but now I do because my daughter really is a miracle.'
Amelia, from Bordon, Hampshire, was just ten months old when she fell ill and had just taken her first steps.
Melinda and husband Simon, 24, a vehicle mechanic with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, were initially told it could be chickenpox after calling NHS Direct.
But when the little girl was violently sick, they rushed her to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where they were living at the time.
There, a doctor did the test for meningitis by rolling a glass over her skin and took a blood test.
Melinda, a full time mum, said: 'By now, Amelia was struggling to breathe and her heart rate was sky-high.
'Simon was cradling her in his arms and suddenly said: "I didn't realise Amelia had a birthmark there." I knew she didn't and when I opened up her nappy, I saw hundreds of spots.
'The rash quickly spread. That's when I knew it must be meningitis.'
Moments later, the test results confirmed everyone's worst fears - Amelia had the most dangerous form of the bug, bacterial meningitis as well as septicaemia.
She was immediately rushed to intensive care and put on a life support machine, while doctors battled to save her.
Melinda said: 'My poor baby was swollen and covered head-to-toe in the rash. It didn't look anything like her. I just sat there and sobbed.
'Then a doctor told us she probably wouldn't make it through the night and asked if we'd had her christened. We already had so I asked the priest to give her the last rites.
'I couldn't believe what happened next - and neither could the doctors.'
Amelia's heart rate began to drop and by the next day, her body had stabilised.
But now she faced an operation to cut open the skin and let the fluid that had built up drain away.
Not only had the blood supply to her limbs been cut off but the muscles had died and her bones and ligaments had become infected.
The fingers and thumb on Amelia's right hand never recovered and they had to be removed.
Melinda said: 'She's had to learn to adapt to life without her fingers but she doesn't let anything stand in her way.
'It took her a year to walk again. She's a very determined little girl.
'She's got a prosthetic hand but it's just a basic one. She recently had an operation to straighten her arm which has meant she can now use it a lot better.
'Watching her play catch with her one-year-old sister, Sophie is something I never thought I'd see. We're so proud of her and what she's achieved.
'Simon and I are so grateful to the hospital and doctors who treated her. They worked extremely quickly and because they were so tuned in to what was happening they did manage to save her legs with the fasciotomy surgery.
'If it weren't for their amazing care and knowledge we wouldn't have her here today with us.'
Amelia will need more operations in the future to straighten her legs and help her walk for longer distances.
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