Cheryl Cressey relives how her son, 10, died

Oct 21 2009 The Journal

EMOTIONS ran high as a devoted mum relived her 10-year-old son’s death after doctors failed to diagnose he had meningitis.

Cheryl Cressey, 48, rushed her son William to accident and emergency after he was struck down by extreme head and neck pain.

The youngster, described by his family as an “easy going, very happy healthy boy”, was suffering from a high temperature.

Despite desperate pleas by Cheryl to get William antibiotics to fight meningitis in case he had contracted the killer brain bug, doctors refused.

Cheryl, of Avon Road, Hurworth, Darlington, then had to fight to keep her son in overnight in the children’s ward after medics suggested he was just suffering from a migraine.

But the little boy, who was screaming in pain and clutching his head, began to deteriorate in the early hours of the following day while doctors at Darlington Memorial Hospital indicated it could be a viral infection or pneumonia.

Her voice shaking with emotion, Cheryl, a former statistician, told the inquest at Newcastle Civic Centre: “I kept telling the doctors what had happened, about his previous illnesses and my concerns that it was meningitis but they just ignored me.”

Although blood tests came back with an inflammatory marker three times higher than normal, William was discharged from Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Bursting in to tears, Cheryl added: “I was disgusted they wanted William to go home because I knew he was seriously ill and I had told them so repeatedly but they just ignored me.

“There was swelling on his head that had come all the way to his jaw line and his eyes were so swollen that he could hardly blink. He was dying and they told me to take him home. His condition had got worse and they hadn’t checked on him for hours.”

Cheryl, her mum Valerie Bamlett and sister Dawn Preston, shook their heads with disbelief as doctors denied William’s condition had worsened during the inquest, saying he had “perked up”.

Dr Saadia Rehman, who worked on the children’s ward, said: “I didn’t see any swelling on his head and he didn’t complain of any pain except when he moved his neck backwards. There was no clinical evidence of meningitis.”