These horrifying images of 21-month old Freddy Osborne seriously ill with E. coli show just how serious the bug is.

Mum Charlotte Fudge, 25, allowed the Echo to print the pictures of Freddy in intensive care to raise awareness of the illness, which since July has affected 10 people who are either resident in Dorset or visited the county.

It is believed that Freddy, of Bournemouth, was the first to contract the disease in July, spending a month in Southampton General Hosp-ital, two weeks of which was in paediatric intensive care.

He needed four blood transfusions, one platelet transfusion and had four seizures due to swelling on the brain. One of these lasted for four hours and left him blind for 10 days.

Following this seizure, he was put into a coma for six days as it was too dangerous for him to breathe by himself.

He had fluid on his heart, causing his heart rate to go up to 202 beats per minute, and he ended up suffering from morphine withdrawal.

His mum Charlotte, of Duck Lane in Kinson, said: “When Freddy went into intensive care I just burst into tears and I couldn’t handle it.

“I’m terrified of needles and wires but I just had to get used to it [as] I didn’t have a choice. “Freddy was totally traumatised and went through hell. We could see that he was frightened.

“At one point the whole family was at the hospital because we didn’t think he was going to get through it.

“It is absolutely ridiculous that Public Health England didn’t warn people about what was going on and work harder to find the source. A lot of people have been very ill because of that.”

Freddy, who is now two, has to have monthly blood tests but it is not known whether his kidneys will ever function normally. At the moment it is thought they are functioning at about 60 per cent.