Little Freddie Beaumont died three days after being sent home from NHS Salford Royal Hospital – his mother told an inquest she felt his symptoms ‘were not taken seriously’
The mum of a ‘very happy’ one-year-old boy who died three days after being sent home from hospital has told an inquest that she and her husband were made to feel like ‘over-anxious parents.’
Freddie Beaumont became critically ill at the family home in Worsley, Greater Manchester in November 2022, just three weeks after his first birthday. The tiny boy was rushed to hospital after going into cardiac arrest, but sadly could not be saved. Only three days earlier, Freddie had been referred to the paediatric department of the NHS Salford Royal Hospital, but was discharged a few hours later. On Monday, an inquest heard how a doctor had diagnosed him with bronchiolitis, a common lung infection.
However, after his death, a post-mortem found Freddie had a form of Strep A infection, reports the Manchester Evening News. Freddie’s devastated mum has told Bolton Coroner’s Court his she felt his symptoms “were not taken seriously” during his first visit to Salford Royal, even though “it was clear things weren’t right”.
Giving evidence, the boy’s mother, operations director Aimee Beaumont, said he had previously had been hospitalised with bronchiolitis in the May 2022. He was given antibiotics, and had follow-up visits from nurses. He could often sound “quite crackly” and his chest was a ‘constant concern’, Mrs Beaumont said. He first appeared unwell after attending nursery on Friday, November 18, 2022, the hearing was told, and 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, but they told them they weren’t taking ‘chest related cases’ due to Covid-19, and booked them a telephone appointment with the GP out-of-hours service. Mrs Beaumont said: “During the consultation, the doctor mentioned Freddie seemed to be “grunting” and told her this “can mean they are over-working their breathing”.
The doctor referred Freddie to the hospital’s paediatric unit, known as the Panda Unit. But Mrs Beaumont said that on the unit, she and her husband were made to feel as if they were “over-anxious parents” who were “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. But soon it after it was clear her usually “very happy, smiley little boy” appeared to be in distress, and “his chest was a lot worse than we had ever heard it”. “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 that he had “standard bronchiolitis’ and that 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. She continued: “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” at the time and believed he “should have been kept in for observation and possibly oxygen”, she said, adding that 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 “the only thing we were told was in reference to Calpol”, adding that 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”,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”. The inquest continues.