A week ago tiny Mica Nicholas was at death's door, struck down by the disease that is every parents' nightmare, meningitis.

Today, she's back home with dad Paul and mum Alison Peace.

And the smile her parents thought they might never see again is lighting up her face once more.

She probably owes her life to Alison's quick thinking - and the prompt action of her GP, Dr Jonathan Evans. Their actions are a lesson in how to beat the killer disease.

Alison, 26, of Almsford Road, Acomb, noticed last Monday that her normally active little girl was suddenly listless and apathetic.

By Tuesday her condition had worsened - and alarm bells rang in Alison's mind when she noticed four little red spots.

She said: "My friend was there, and we just looked at each other, and thought, could it be?"

In a panic, she rang the Monkgate surgery, who paged Dr Evans.

He told her to bring Mica straight in - and as soon as he saw the spots, he knew it was something really serious.

Experts who treated Mica later say it was the penicillin injections he gave the little girl then that probably saved her life.

Mica had meningococcal septicaemia, a form of the disease where the meningococcus bug poisons the blood. It is even more dangerous than the brain form of the disease.

Mica's dad, Paul, said: "It frightened me to death. We're so grateful to Dr Evans. Every consultant and everybody else along the way has said it's because of what he did that she's alive today."

After giving the injections, Dr Evans rang York's paediatric unit, where the by then unconscious girl was stabilised and put on a drip.

Experts from the children's intensive care unit at Leeds General Infirmary then took Mica to Leeds, where for three days her life hung in the balance.

But by last Friday, she had come round again - and today she was back home for the first time after her ordeal, with her mum and dad and brother Daniel, seven.

Dr Evans insisted today he had only done what any GP would have done.

Alison's prompt action in calling for help had been the key to saving Mica's life, he said.

He said: "If she had not been able to describe the rash on the phone, and say that Mica was more unwell than you would have expected, more than just a cold or flu, the outcome might have been very different.

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