An inquest has heard how a mother and father were made to feel like ‘over anxious parents’ after their baby boy collapsed three days after being sent home from hospital. Freddie Beaumont suffered a cardiac arrest at his home – just three weeks after his first birthday. He was rushed to hospital but could not be saved.
Three days earlier, Freddie described as a ‘very smiley little boy’ had been referred to the paediatric department of the Salford Royal Hospital, and discharged a few hours later. As the Manchester Evening News reports, yesterday an inquest heard how a doctor said he was suffering from bronchiolitis, a common lung infection.
Following his death, a post-mortem found Freddie, from Worsley, had a of Strep A infection. Freddie’s devastated mum has told Bolton Coroner’s Court his ‘symptoms were not taken seriously’ during his first visit to Salford Royal, even though ‘it was clear things weren’t right’.
Freddie is the son of project manager Mark Beaumont and operations director Aimee Beaumont. Giving evidence, his mother said he had previously had been in hospital with bronchiolitis in the May 2022.
He was given antibiotics, and had follow-up visits from nurses. He could sound ‘quite crackly, quite often’ and his chest was a ‘constant concern’, Mrs Beaumont said. In the days before his death, he first appeared unwell after attending nursery on Friday, November 18, 2022, the hearing was told.
Mrs Beaumont said there was an increase in his temperature, he was snotty, and ‘his breathing seemed noisier than usual.’ She took him to the Leigh Walk-In Centre the following morning (November 19). They told them they weren’t taking ‘chest related cases’ due to Covid-19, and they booked them a telephone appointment with the GP out-of-hours service.
The practitioner who spoke to them suggested they went to Salford Royal so he could be checked over and booked them an appointment with a GP based there. During the consultation, the doctor mentioned Freddie seemed to be ‘grunting’ which ‘can mean they are over-working their breathing’, Mrs Beaumont said.
He referred Freddie to the hospital’s paediatric unit, known as the Panda Unit. Mrs Beaumont said on the unit, she and her husband were made to feel as if they were ‘over-anxious parents being fussy when we should have been a bit more relaxed’. His parents gave him Ibuprofen whilst they were waiting, and Mrs Beaumont said he had ‘perked up a little‘ by the time he was seen on the Panda unit.
“He was a very happy, smiley little boy. I did try to explain he will smile at you now, but he’s not right. His chest was a ‘lot worse than we had ever heard it. And his up and down periods were a lot more dramatic than they had been before,” she said.
Before being discharged, Freddie was seen by paediatric consultant Dr Raja Syahanee, who Mrs Beaumont said had told her he had ‘standard bronchiolitis’ and it was ‘nothing out of the ordinary.’
“She made out as if we were being a bit over-anxious about something that is quite common,” Mrs Beaumont said. “He had had it before, and I said it was a lot worse.
“We wanted some antibiotics or something that may help him feel a bit better, when we knew it was quite a serious case. We didn’t think that was being taken seriously.”
No blood test was carried out, the hearing was told. The family ‘didn’t think he should have been discharged’ and ‘should have been kept in for observation and possibly oxygen’ she said. They were a ‘bit panicked’ by the decision to send them home, the jury were told.
“As parents, you are always told you know your child best. He was worse than he had been with Bronchiolitis in the past, and the doctor had mentioned he had heard the grunting, and it wasn’t taken seriously,” she said.
Asked what the Dr Syahanee’s response was to the suggestion Freddie was ‘grunting’, Ms Beaumont said: “There wasn’t really any reaction. I think her mind was already made up with that it was bronchiolitis.”
Mrs Beaumont said no ‘safety netting advice‘ was given, except: “The only thing we were told was in reference to Calpol.” She added she was told to only give him Calpol as a ‘last resort’ and if his temperature went above 40 degrees.
In the hours following his discharge, he ‘didn’t seem himself’ and was ‘just off,’ Mrs Beaumont said. She said they gave him Calpol, and he slept that night but it was ‘very disturbed’ which ‘was not like him as he was a very good sleeper.’
The following day he attended another child’s birthday party and was ‘up and down’, the court heard. There was a ‘slight improvement’ and they thought he ‘might be over the worst of it’, Mrs Beaumont said.
However, he woke the following morning and ‘didn’t seem right’ so they kept him off nursery and his dad stayed at home to look after him, she said. When he went to sleep, he seemed ‘unsettled’ and had ‘noisy breathing’ she said.
On Tuesday, November 22, he stirred around 9.30am before Mrs Beaumont said she woke him at around 11.30am for a feed. He appeared pale and his ‘eyes began rolling in his head’, leading her to fear he may be choking, she said. She rang 999 but he stopped breathing whilst she was on the line, and she commenced paediatric CPR until paramedics arrived.
He was rushed to Salford Royal but despite extensive resuscitation attempts, he was declared dead at 12:51pm. A post-mortem, carried out by pathologist, Dr Melanie Newbould, confirmed his death as being the result of acute empyema and pneumonia (Group A hemolytic Streptococcus).
Mrs Beaumont said they ‘wanted to know why Freddie died.’ She said questions they would like to see answered in the inquest concerned ‘further tests, the prescription of antibiotics, monitoring and whether he should have been kept in hospital in all the circumstances.’