Perth toddler loses arms and legs after contracting meningococcal.

The limbs of a little boy in Perth to be amputated in a desperate bid to save him from a killer virus.

Robbie Buchan was diagnosed with meningococcal in October 2014 after initially being told by a doctor that his fever was probably just a stomach bug or a common cold.

But days after the fever began, the five-month-old boy developed three red dots on his back and was rushed to hospital by his parents Desiree Scofield and Iain Buchan.

“The doctors said if I hadn’t gone into his bedroom in the next 30 minutes, we would have woken up to find him gone,” Desiree Scofield told The West Australian.

The toddler was rushed to the Princess Margaret Hospital as the spots rapidly multiplied and his body turned purple.

Robbie's parents were told their baby had developed septicaemia and that if he were to survive, he would need to have his arms amputated at the shoulders and his legs amputated from the hip.

“His fingers and toes started to turn black and his limbs started to die, it was horrible,” Ms Scofield said.

“We had to just watch and wait and were told that if he survived the first 48 hours, he had a 50 per cent chance of pulling through.”

The 2005 Australian of the Year Fiona Wood decided to push back the amputations in the hope her team could save more of Robbie's limbs by trimming away the dead flesh.

The necrotic tissue that had consumed almost 80 per cent of the boy's body took Wood and her team months to cut away.

Surgery for Robbie was delayed for an entire year even though the longest recorded case of delaying amputation in order to salvage parts of the limb in the case of meningococcal sits at 40 days.

Delaying surgery not only gave Robbie longer limbs but has also given him a better chance of mobility once he will be fitted with prosthetics.

A crowdfunding page has been set up in order to provide some financial relief to the young family who face years of expensive treatments, appointments and prosthetic limbs.

The campaign has so far raised almost $55,000 on the now two-year-old's behalf.

Watch the reportage of Robbie's battle and the heartbreaking testimonies of his family.