A BRAVE Pontypool baby who beat meningitis has learnt to walk and is attending nursery.

Olivia George, now aged 19 months, became ill with viral meningitis within a week of being born at Nevill Hall Hospital on August 30, 2013.

At one stage, Olivia’s heart rate was 263 beats per minute and what followed was the most turbulent two months in the lives of her parents, Danielle and Jamie George.

Indeed, such was Olivia’s condition when she was transferred to intensive care in the University Hospital of Wales, the Georges had requested that the hospital priest baptise their daughter.

There had been no rash and no obvious initial symptoms for their precious baby, who had been born at a healthy weight of 8lb 4oz.

Yet, left with little other choice, Olivia’s parents signed consent forms for her to be airlifted to Great Ormond Street Hospital to be put on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine for 10 days. Ultimately, it saved her life.

Olivia’s mother, Danielle, 35, said: “You don’t believe it will ever happen to you and we had just put it down to the hot weather.

“She never had the rash but her heart was beating like a train. It was unbelievable and it was only going up and up and up.

“She then crashed at the hospital and we were no longer able to stay with her. We had to go to London and there were so many potential side effects.

“We had to sign consent forms, but it was either that or...we just prayed every day that it worked.”

The ECMO machine gave Olivia’s heart a rest and pumped oxygen into her blood for her. After she was taken off the machine, she was put onto a ventilator which helped her breath.

Having spent five weeks in Great Ormond Street Hospital, Olivia was transferred to the University Hospital of Wales for two weeks to wean her off the morphine and she has since made a remarkable recovery.

Now screaming, shouting and laughing like any other girl her age, Olivia attends a playgroup at Little Stars nursery in Pontypool twice a week and loves nothing more than watching an episode of Peppa Pig.

Having previously had a check-up once every three months at the Heath, Olivia now only has one every six months.

Mrs George said: “We had very nervously brought her home and she was on 15 doses of seven different medicines per day.

“It will always be there but I urge her to do things as much as she can. She just strides through everything.

“When she’s tired, the back of her head gets sweaty, but we never want to hinder her and if she can’t do something, we’ll work up towards it.

“When we’re out, she makes people smile and no one can tell that anything is wrong with her.”