Last winter, Jeff Gobel should have been basking in the glow of being a new dad while drinking the extra coffee that comes with sleepless infant nights. Instead, he was grieving the tragic death of his three week old daughter, Mallory, from a very common virus, HSV 1. Although it took more than a month, Jeff was finally able to speak about his grief via Facebook last February, and his post has recently started going viral again. In it, he cautions new parents to be vigilant about forcing anyone who holds or touches your baby to wash their hands.
While HSV 1, the common herpes virus that causes cold sores, is rarely fatal in older children and adults, it is often disastrous for newborns. However, most infants contract it by being kissed with someone who has HSV 1. For Mallory, that was not the case, which is why her father posted his extreme warning: in her case, it is almost certain that she contracted it through hand-to-hand contact.
Photo: Jeff Gobel/Facebook
Gober posted his warning about HSV with a picture of his precious daughter sucking on her hands, saying:
I’ve been pretty silent since Mallory’s death. It’s taken me over a month now to write this, but if any good can come from her passing and prevent someone else from experiencing the heartache, then I would be remiss not to make an effort.
If you have a new baby, or will be around a new baby, wash your hands. A lot.
If anyone wants to hold your baby, make sure they wash their hands first. Then make them do it again.HSV-1, most commonly known as the virus behind cold sores, is a form of herpes (Herpes Simplex Virus-1). It is EXTREMELY common, and the World Health Organization estimates that 67% of all humans on Earth are infected (http://www.who.int/
mediacentre/factsheets/ fs400/en/#hsv1). To make things worse, many people who are infected will never show symptoms in their lifetime and probably don’t even know they have it. For newborns, it is more than likely fatal, as was the case for Mallory. You might think it should have been easy to diagnose. Surely someone with an oozing cold sore kissed her on the mouth, right? Mallory was never in contact with a person who had an active cold sore. Never. Nobody ever kissed her on the mouth. In spite of that, she caught HSV-1 within her first week of life and we had to watch her die slowly for nearly 2 weeks. Mallory could not keep her hands out of her mouth and eyes and she was constantly sucking on her fingers (see attached picture), so it’s almost certain that the virus got onto her hands at some point. It is possible to be contagious even without an active cold sore.
