'Without the RSV she would have lived longer' - mother urges others to have vaccine

• ITV Cymru Wales' National Correspondent Rob Osborne reports.

A mother whose baby died after catching a common virus is urging people to have a vaccine which became available on the NHS on Monday.

Three-month-old Rumer was born with a life-limiting condition called apnea, but died after catching respiratory syncytial virus - also known as RSV.

It's a common respiratory condition, which for most of us brings cold like symptoms.

But for some babies and and older people with underlying illnesses it can be much more serious.

Rumer's mother Helen Roper said: "She spent 6 weeks in intensive care so she recovered from the RSV but it had damaged her lungs which were already compromised so much that she couldn't come off the ventilator.

"They tried something called non-invasive ventilation which is like a mask which worked to a degree but in the end she just couldn't not come off a ventilator and her organs started to fail and she died early on new years day in 2016."

She continued: "It was the RSV that compromised her lungs which meant that she did not live as long as she possibly could have and we didn't have the chance to manage the apnea which was really quite minor.

"She'd been discharged from NICU, she was well, she had minor treatable problems and then she caught RSV and she was back on a ventilator.

"Without the RSV she would have lived longer and that was the case for the other children in that hospital."

Helen is herself a midwife and said that even she didn't know much about the condition before her daughter contracted it.

"I think I'd vaguely heard the name. As a midwife it's not something that crosses your mind", she said.

Today, over 75s and some pregnant women in Wales can now get a vaccination against RSV.

Dr Chris Johnson, Consultant Epidemiologist at Public Health Wales, said: "The vaccine's being offered in pregnancy for those who are 28 weeks or over and getting vaccinated during pregnancy passes some of those antibodies onto the baby and allows them to be protected for the first few months and the first year of their life when they're at the highest risk of being hospitalised or being seriously ill.

"But we're also able to offer it to adults after their 75th birthday and that will really help reduce the burden on the healthcare service and the burden of distress on the families of those people becoming seriously ill, ending up in hospital and unfortunately sometimes dying."

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