“The fact that they had a test there available to her was paramount. It saved her life,” said Stacey.
“It’s a miracle she’s here and we’re extremely grateful for that,” added Willow’s dad, Russ.
With the right treatment, Willow was eventually able to recover from her infection, but needed several months in hospital.
She is one of many patients at the children’s hospital to benefit from the new type of testing.
During a study in 2024-5 metagenomic testing was used on 122 critically ill children in the paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) at GOSH.
The results have now been published in the Lancet Microbe.
Metagenomic testing analyses all genetic material in a sample and can detect thousands of different pathogens.
By contrast, the most common method of identifying bacteria is by trying to culture them in Petri dishes, a technology that has been used since Victorian times.
Another test, PCR, can identify viruses and some bacteria, but doctors need to specify what they are trying to detect.
Metagenomics testing at GOSH was able to identify around nine in 10 bacteria and viruses and all fungi in samples.