Devon Coroner’s Court heard Theo Tuikubulau, three, was admitted to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth on the afternoon of July 6, 2022, but was discharged, and died two days later
A mother has described at an inquest watching her young son die in front of her eyes from sepsis after being admitted to hospital twice within 36 hours.
Theo Tuikubulau had been gradually getting sicker and sicker with a high temperature, flu-like symptoms and was reluctant to drink or eat. Devon Coroner’s Court heard the three-year-old was admitted to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth on the afternoon of July 6, 2022, but discharged from the children’s assessment unit shortly after midnight.
He was then re-admitted to the hospital just after midnight on July 8 where he died a few hours later. Theo’s mother Kayleigh Kenneford told the court she and Theo’s father, Royal Navy serviceman Joe Tuikubulau, had to watch medics try and save his life.
“A lot of people came running in for the emergency and I ran out screaming,” she said. “It’s so hard knowing that your child is being worked on, and they are trying to save him. I tried to go back into the room, but they wouldn’t let me. I went back outside, and I was sick.
“Joe then arrived and asked where Theo was. Joe ran in and straight back out shouting, ‘No, no’. They were working on Theo at the time. The same doctor who discharged Theo on the previous admissions came into the room to speak with us.
“He said that they were going to keep trying to work on Theo and to save him. A little while later, that same doctor came in and said they couldn’t do anymore for Theo and asked if we wanted to come and hold his hand. We went back into the room where Theo was and held his hand while they switched everything off.”
In her witness statement, Ms Kenneford, from Plymouth, described her son’s illness in the last 48 hours of his life. She said he had been feeling unwell on July 5 with what she thought was a cold and he also had a temperature.
The next day he was still unwell and was not taking fluids or going to the toilet and his mother noticed a rash on his stomach, the court heard. “I wondered if it was a heat rash or something for a minute, but while I was looking into him, I saw that the side of his lip had gone a little blue,” she said.
“At one point, I checked his temperature and it was 40.2C. His breathing had deteriorated. I could see his belly going in and out quite quickly and he seemed to be gasping. At this point, I started to worry more and decided to call an ambulance.”
Theo was admitted to Derriford Hospital on the afternoon July 6 where it was thought he had an upper respiratory infection, and he was admitted to the children’s assessment unit. “I was a worried mum,” Ms Kenneford said.
“At 10.16pm, Theo was asleep in the hospital bed. Nurses came to do his observations and then the doctor came around, a different doctor to the previous one. He shone a light in Theo’s eyes and looked in his ears. The doctor said that Theo had an ear infection.
“The doctor suggested that it was just an ear infection and that he was happy to send Theo home. I asked about antibiotics, and he said that antibiotics wouldn’t clear it up and it would clear up on its own. This was different to what the A&E doctor had said.
“He said they wouldn’t swab him because the infection he had was too close to Covid-19 or something. I wonder now if Strep A would have shown up if they had swabbed him?” They were sent home at 12.30am on July 7, and Ms Kenneford told the hearing: “I felt okay because I believed what the professionals were saying.
“I didn’t really understand why we couldn’t just stay there. The ward didn’t seem busy, and Theo just wanted to sleep. Theo slept in my bed that night and was restless. I didn’t sleep a wink because I was worried about him. We slept with the quilt off as he was still feeling warm.
“I remembered that the doctor had said that Theo might get worse before he got better, so I was thinking that it was his body fighting the infection. I was watching my son deteriorate and just thinking that this was how things were supposed to happen, that he would get worse before he got better, but really, he was dying. I didn’t take his temperature again, but I could tell that he was still warm.”
That evening Ms Kenneford phoned the number on the hospital discharge letter and spoke with a nurse but “felt like I’d been fobbed off.” She then phoned for an ambulance and Theo was taken back to Derriford Hospital where he died in the early hours of July 8.
The inquest heard Theo had died sepsis which had been caused by an “invasive” Strep A infection. The inquest before a jury at County Hall in Exeter continues.