Boy Dies Just 24 Hours After Coming Home From Preschool

A three-year-old boy has died just 24 hours after coming home from preschool with a simple tummy bug, later discovered as a rare type of meningitis.

Henry Walter had gone to school, one day in January, near the family’s home in Leeds in the UK, with his sister Tilly, and everything went well until that evening.

Mirror reported that the toddler complained of a sore tummy to his mother Vicky, 36, who gave him a children’s pain medication. However, an hour later, he vomited. His father Mark, 48, arrived home from work to find his son with fever, so he cuddled him to sleep. The following morning at 5am, Mark was heartbroken after he couldn’t wake his son and immediately called emergency services who responded quickly.

The young boy was taken to Leeds General Infirmary, West Yorkshire, where the family were told the devastating news that Henry had the rare bug Haemophilus Influenzae Type F. Doctors say the illness had developed into meningitis “” the life-threatening inflammation of the membranes that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord.

Mark said that the development of the illness was quick. “Within about 20 minutes of us arriving at resus, they told us he wasn’t going to make it,” he said, as doctors said that Henry’s brain stem showed no activity. Just 24 hours after coming home from preschool, Henry was dead.

Four months after the tragic event, the Walter family now hope that no other parent goes through the tragedy they endured, and that the symptoms of meningitis are more widely known.

The family said that Henry did not have a rash which is a telltale sign of meningitis, and he was vaccinated against the disease. “Just because you’ve had the jab doesn’t mean you can’t catch another strain,” Mark said.

There is no known vaccine for the strain of meningitis which killed Henry, which means parents and carers have to be more aware of the signs and symptoms of the illness.

However, Mark urged parents to not hesitate to vaccinate their child and not wait for a rash to appear.

Symptoms of this disease include fever, headache, nausea, cold hands and feet, drowsiness and sometimes, blotchy skin. The Type F strain, which is not covered by the MenB vaccine or the established Hib jab, which protects against Haemophilus Influenzae Type B, is rare.

In England in 2014, only 10 cases of haemophilus influenza-related meningitis were reported and most of those are thought to have developed from the more common Type B.

As for Australia, during the two years from January 2006 to December 2007, a total of 39 invasive Hib infections were notified but these were down to Type B.

Source: News.com.au and Kidspot.com.au