The next morning, the consultant turned up and examined jack thoroughly, and diagnosed Gasto-enteritis, he prescribed jack with antibiotics and put him on a fluid drip, after a few hours, jack was not responding to this treatment, and also by this time his temperature was dangerously high, the consultant was called back to review jack. We were now getting very anxious, i suppose deep inside we knew something was seriously wrong, but neither of us wanted to admit it to ourselves.
When the consultant turned up, we could see in his face that he seemed a little more concerned, and asked for fluids to be administered by a syringe, as jack was not passing urine, he also asked for bloods to be taken, and for his stomach to drained via his gastrostomy, he was still convinced it was Gastro-enteritis, after an hour or so he came back to review jack, but he still had not responded to anything, he just lay there panting with his temperature rising to 42 degrees, also the stomach contained nothing but this horrible brown fluid, and he still had not passed any urine, upon seeing this picture, the consultant asked to see us in his office, we sensed that there was something badly wrong. He explained that because jack was not producing urine, despite the fact he had been given large amounts of fluid, suggested that there might be a Renal problem, he also thought jack had a blood infection, so it was in jacks best interests that he be transferred to a specialist hospital as soon as possible. It felt as though we were on a rollercoaster, unable to get off, but not wanting it to stop, just incase the news we had just been given actually had time to sink in, we then went into auto-pilot mode, we had to rush back home get jack some spare clothes, and for us to throw some essentials together, then drive the 35 miles or so to the hospital. Jack went on ahead of us in the ambulance, with a nurse and the consultant, we arrived about 30mins or so later, to find jack in the high dependency unit, he was in an adult bed, with a team of doctors beside him, all i remember thinking at that time was "God he looks so small in that bed".
Whilst the doctors were attending to jack, we sneaked off for a coffee, just glad he was in a specialist hospital, where the doctors knew what they were doing. When we came back, we just sat near him at the other side of the room so as to let the doctors get on with their job, and not get in their way. What happened next, was just so shocking i dont think it will ever leave us. We were just watching, when the doctor treating jack just out of the blue said " He's Arresting"........and started pumping hard on his chest,....we were just so shocked, we could'nt really take in what was happening, the nurse asked us if we wanted to stop, we had tears in our eyes, so she just took it upon herself and just led us away to a room.
After about 10 minutes we needed to know what was happening, so went back to the room, there was a group of about 10 doctors and nurses still working on jack, they sat us down, and told us that jacks heart had been stopped for about 25 minutes, and if they could not get it started in the next 5 minutes they would have to stop. Upon hearing this we broke down, thinking it was all over, i was praying for jacks heart to beat again, and miraculously it did, they got him back, and rushed him straight to the Intensive Care Unit, we quickly followed, the doctor took us into a room, and explained that something very serious was happening in his abdomen, and was in fact killing him, he explained that even if he went to theatre he would die on the operating table, and also explained that as jack had been denied oxygen for 25 minutes during resusitaion, he was never going to be the same little boy that we knew, as his brain would be severly damaged, he added that he was certain jack would not survive the night, and asked if we wanted to remove all the machines and tubes, and just hold him, we agreed, if he was going to die, he was going to die in our arms.
We had him christened by the hospital chaplain, then the tubes were removed, he was our little baby again, lying in our arms, jacks heart stopped before the life support machine could be turned off, the doctor explained it was jacks decision, Jack died in our arms at 1am on 27th August 2001. After a post mortem it was found jack died from Intestinal infarction, to this day we are unsure of the cause.
As long as we live, we will never understand the last 34 hours of jacks life, it seemed one minute he was smiling and giggling, just like his normal self, the next minute his life was fading away in our arms. Wherever you are Jack, Whatever your doing, please remember Mummy and Daddy will love you today, tomorrow and always, Godbless you sweetheart. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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