Heartbreak as toddler dies ‘totally out of the blue’ just hours after doctor ‘dismissed his symptoms as tummy bug’
A TODDLER tragically died “out of the blue” just hours after a doctor dismissed his symptoms as a stomach bug.
Hudson Hewitt woke up on the morning of January 18 at around 4.30am and would not stop crying.
Mum Shannon and dad Tyler, both 26, simply put it down to a bug at first.
But the two-year-old tot continued to point at his stomach and was sick soon after at the family home in Ferryhill, Durham.
Shannon then called 111 when he didn’t improve, and says a doctor diagnosed the tot over the phone with gastroenteritis, saying to keep him hydrated and ring back if he didn’t get better.
However, Hudson’s condition worsened and he became unresponsive after going to urgent care a day later.
He was blue-lit to Darlington Memorial where he died despite doctors’ efforts.
Shannon, 26, told the Echo: “It was all such a shock, totally out of the blue.
“We never felt like a family until we had Hudson. He made us us.
“He was full of character, so smiley. He loved farm animals, dinosaurs. He was a typical little boy.
“We haven’t been home. I can’t bring myself to – everything is the way we left it, all his toys are still in the living room.
A pathologist found Hudson died due to a twisted bowel due to a birth defect, which they told Shannon most people born with can survive without issue.
She believes it may have been spotted if he’d had an appointment straight away.
And the devastated mum is now calling for all under-fives to get an in-person check when parents ring 111 instead of being given a diagnosis over the phone.
She added: “I think if they had seen him on the Saturday and they did his observations something could have shown up.
“If an organ was shutting down maybe his blood pressure or something would have flagged there was something wrong.
“With an adult we can say what the problem is, but a child can’t do that. He was the age where he’d say ‘yes’ to everything.
“As a parent you worry about your kids anyway, but you play a guessing game of if it’s serious or not.”
A petition, set up by Shannon, is due to go live online this week calling for the change.