Girl, 4, loses limbs after suffering from life-threatening illness

A Brisbane family is warning parents after their brave little girl went from happy and healthy to having her arms and legs amputated in the space of a few days.

Four-year-old Mia Wilkinson contracted sepsis, a condition that kills more than one Australian every two hours. Now she and her parents want to raise awareness in the hope it will help others.

Mia was always a happy and healthy little girl but everything changed in October last year after she got the flu.

But it ended up so much worse. She had RSV, an invasive strep A bacterial infection which resulted in sepsis.

Sepsis is called a silent killer and close to 5000 Australians die from it each year.

Mia went from being unwell to on life support in just 24 hours and her mother Amy Wilkinson revealed the moment she thought she was losing her little girl.

“I was yelling at [Mia’s father] down the hall, ‘we’re losing her’,” she said.

Mia’s organs were shutting down but not her spirit, and somehow she survived.

Sadly though doctors had to amputate both arms and legs. Now, eight months on after a lot of rehab, Mia is back at school.

“Mia wore her legs in last Tuesday I think it was and there’s just tears everywhere,” Ms Wilkinson said.

Now they’ve got Mia through the worst, her parents want to warn everyone about sepsis so families can ask one crucial question when a loved one falls ill.

“Ask that question, ask specifically ‘could it be sepsis?’,” Mia’s father Peter Wilkinson said.

“I really think it would have made a difference.”