Toddler's shock death after chicken-pox scratch

A young mum is warning parents to be extra vigilant after her three-year-old son contracted sepsis and died from scratching his chicken pox.

Jasmine Shortland, 23, was left "broken" when her little boy Bryan-Andrew Lock passed away in his sleep while staying at his grandmother’s on August 11 last year.

The full-time mum was originally told that Bryan-Andrew had died from sudden infant death syndrome but it was revealed in February this year that he died from streptococcus A septicaemia.

Little Bryan-Andrew's final words to his mum were "I love you", and he appeared perfectly healthy aside from a sore neck that day.

The barmaid claims she was later told after a post-mortem that the infection was likely to have been caused by him scratching one of his chickenpox.

“I was just shocked. How can a three-year-old boy catch something that’s so rare? My mind is just so boggled by it," Jasmine, from Somerset in the UK, said.

“Apparently he must have scratched one of his chicken pox and that’s how the infection got in. It is so rare. I am trying to raise more awareness to other mums. If your child has chicken pox, it is something that can lead to infection.

And Jasmine wants to spread the word that chicken pox isn't a benign childhood illness.

“I think it is important to know what can happen when you least expect it. I thought chicken pox was normal. Every child has it," she said.

“My other child had it and he was absolutely fine. He had no problems at all.

“It still hasn’t sunk in. When I go to his grave it just doesn’t feel right talking to a headstone, I should be talking to him. He should be starting school this year. It is the milestones that kills me the most.

“I had to carry him down the aisle on the day of his funeral. I should have seen him at the end of an aisle looking at his bride. It is still hard for everyone. It’s still really raw.

“It broke me. The only thing that is keeping me going is my partner [Josh Wescott, 21] and my other children [Isaac, five months, Ivan, one and Austin-Edwin, two].

"If they weren’t here I probably wouldn’t be. It is the worst feeling you could ever have.”

When Bryan-Andrew complained of a stiff neck and his face and neck became swollen the mum thought he might have had mumps.

Bryan-Andrew and his brother Austin were staying with their grandmother that night because the 23-year-old didn’t want her youngest son Ivan, one, to become infected who was just four months old at the time.

When the gran went to wake up the brothers in the morning she discovered Bryan-Andrew was cold and wouldn’t wake up.

She called for an ambulance and they performed CPR but unfortunately it was too late.

Jasmine said: “The night before he was running around. He was happy. He was laughing and joking. It just doesn’t make sense.

“My stepdad came to my house and told me Bryan-Andrew had died. I ran to my mum’s house, I thought ‘this can’t be right’.

“I spoke to him on the phone the night before he died and he told me he loved me and I said ‘I’ll see you soon and give you cuddles’.

“I have always known about Strep B but I’ve never heard of Strep A until that day. The doctor said it is so rare.

“There were no symptoms because it was so rare he just had normal symptoms for mumps. He had no rash, nothing that you would normally have.

“His body was so small he couldn’t fight it and it turned into sepsis. It is just weird that there were no symptoms.”

Jasmine was given this new information in February 2017 after a post-mortem was carried out and says she was also told that there wouldn’t have been anything the family could have done to save him.

The report informed the family that Bryan-Andrew, who had contracted chicken pox in May 2016, could have contracted an invasive form of the streptococcus A infection by scratching one of his chicken pox scabs, which eventually led to sepsis.

Jasmine said: “The doctor said that even if we took him to the hospital and gave him anti-biotics it wouldn’t have helped him.

“They resuscitated him but if they had brought him back he would have been brain dead. I would have been waiting for them to take him off life support.

“The only comfort I have got is that he was asleep and he wasn’t in pain."

After losing Bryan-Andrew, the grieving mum discovered that she was ten weeks pregnant but tragically suffered a miscarriage due to the large amount of stress she was under.

Jasmine said: “I didn’t find out until I had stomach ache. It was absolutely awful. I nearly lost my life.

“I lost 75% of my body’s blood. The nurses said there was someone watching over me that day and I knew it was Bryan-Andrew.

“I lost two children in the space of a month and a half. I said she was probably a little girl. Bryan-Andrew always wanted a little sister and now he’s looking after her.

“When my children get ill now I’m rushing them to the doctors. I am a lot more wary. I wrap them in cotton wool. I’ve got to make sure they’re safe and that nothing is going to happen to them.

“I’ve got a really strong attachment to Isaac and Ivan. Since I have lost Bryan-Andrew my attachment to them is so much stronger.

“It has made our relationship [with partner Josh] stronger. He has been my rock. He has been amazing. Bryan-Andrew was his stepson and he took him in as his own.

“He [Bryan-Andrew] would melt your heart with his smile. He was such a good little boy. He didn’t have a bad bone in his body.”

The family released balloons one year after Bryan-Andrew passed away and again for his birthday on July 4 but the mum says she believes he is with her wherever she goes.

HEALTH INFORMATION
Complications from chickenpox can occur, but they are not common in healthy people who get the disease. People who may get a serious case of chickenpox and may be at high risk for complications include:

Infants
Adolescents
Adults
Pregnant women
People with weakened immune systems because of illness or medications; for example,
People with HIV/AIDS or cancer
Patients who have had transplants, and
People on chemotherapy, immunosuppressive medications, or long-term use of steroids.
Serious complications from chickenpox include:
bacterial infections of the skin and soft tissues in children including Group A streptococcal infections
pneumonia
infection or inflammation of the brain (encephalitis, cerebellar ataxia)
bleeding problems
blood stream infections (sepsis)
dehydration

Some people with serious complications from chickenpox can become so sick that they need to be hospitalised. Chickenpox can also cause death.
Some deaths from chickenpox continue to occur in healthy, unvaccinated children and adults. Many of the healthy adults who died from chickenpox contracted the disease from their unvaccinated children.

Additional reporting by Caters.

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