After Mathew Rutherford started vomiting around the same time as his one-year-old daughter Marnie, he thought he had contracted the same bug the infant caught at nursery
A father who thought he’d caught a sickness bug from his daughter has been diagnosed with leukaemia.
Mathew Rutherford, 35, started throwing up around the same time as his one-year-old daughter, Marnie, so he and fiancée, Laura Lineker didn’t think much of it. However, when Mathew soon developed a gum infection and had to go on antibiotics, his sickness became “unbearable”.
The dad, from Seaford, East Sussex, eventually couldn’t get out of bed due to lethargy and leg pain so Laura called an ambulance. Mathew was told to take paracetamol and go to A&E if he wasn’t feeling better the next day. At 5am, Laura woke up to find Mathew being sick again and decided to drive him to Eastborne District General Hospital.
After blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy, Mathew was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia – cancer of the white blood cells – and sepsis – caused by an abscess.
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Mathew started intensive chemotherapy on August 7 and is receiving his treatment at hospital. Laura, a solicitor, said: “The children bring home a lot of bugs from nursery. We thought there was just a bug or something.
“It turned out she had a UTI, so we then thought it was strange that they’d been sick at the same time. He carried on being sick, and then our daughter got sick again. She had an ear infection, so again it wasn’t something that could be passed on.”
When paramedics initially came to the home in Seaford, they gave Mathew some paracetamol, and said if he still feels ill in the morning to go straight to A&E.
Laura, aged 34, continued: “I pushed and pushed for him to go to the doctor, but he was a typical man. He thought it would be fine once he’d finished his antibiotics and didn’t want to waste the doctors’ time.
“About four days later, the sickness just got unbearable, and he couldn’t get out of bed, so I called an ambulance. They kind of put us off going – they said we’d be in A&E for ages and he’d feel better if he just went to bed.”
But after Mathew continued to vomit in the early hours, Laura drove him to Eastborne District General Hospital. When they arrived, doctors did blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy and the following day Mathew was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and Sepsis.
Laura added: “I was so shocked – completely horrified. We didn’t tell the children for a week – I told them that daddy was on holiday. It was only when we realised he’d have to stay there for the foreseeable future that we told them daddy’s poorly and needs to stay at the hospital to get better.
“They’re still very young so they don’t really understand the concept of being ill. They have a doctor kit – when we took them to the hospital my son wore his doctor’s coat and hat so he could help fix daddy.
“The risk of germs is massive. He’s now neutropenic, which means he has no immune system at all. For the last three days I’ve not been able to visit him because there’s hand, foot and mouth disease going round the kids’ nursery. If I contract that and take it to him, it will kill him.”
Laura said the situation has been especially hard on their two children, Marnie and Freddie, aged three.
She said: “The children are really struggling. Our daughter’s too young to understand, but she knows something’s wrong, so she’s really emotional and clingy.
“Our son is older – he’s asking why daddy can’t come home, and is waking up in the night asking for him. He doesn’t know what’s wrong with him – I’ve just had to say daddy’s poorly and the doctors are going to make him better. We play doctors at home to try to make it less scary for them.”
A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family cover necessities through the disruption to their work. To donate, visit this link.