“I have to keep fighting for my son’s safety”
My son Rufus has food allergies including to milk. Just 2 weeks after starting school, his life was endangered at school. I want to raise awareness of what happened to him because as allergy parents we have to put our trust in schools to look after our allergic children. It terrifies how things went so very wrong for my little boy.
I received a phone call from school advising me to come and collect Rufus because he had a bad cold and was asking for me. I was there in 10 minutes and as soon as I saw him, I said, "He’s having an allergic reaction!" His cheeks were red and swollen and he was covered in hives. He was thick with and vomiting snot. I instructed his teacher to immediately fetch his antihistamine medicine and while she was getting it, I asked his Teaching Assistant what Rufus had come into contact with to cause such a strong allergic reaction? She told me that she wasn’t sure and although the children had eaten yoghurt and fruit for desert that day..
We got home but within minutes, his face and hands turned a light purple colour and he was struggling to breathe. I dialed 999 for emergency services and we were blue-lighted to hospital. When we arrived at the hospital, my little boy was rushed straight into Resus due to his critical condition. Six doctors, a consultant, an anaesthetist and several nurses gathered around his bed. They immediately administered an adrenaline shot which did not improve his condition, along with steroids, a nebuliser. It was only after 2 further adrenaline shots that he finally stabilised. The consultant told me this was one of the worst case of anaphylaxis he had seen.
I am baffled, stunned, speechless. I had filled in numerous forms in regards to Rufus' allergies, I had a lengthy home visit from teachers where we discussed his food allergies, symptoms and what to do in a medical emergency in detail and notes were taken. On his first day at school, we went over everything once again, when I gave the school his allergy medication. Yet despite all of this, within just 2 weeks of starting school, this dreadful incident has happened.
Unfortunately it wasn’t the first incident either. The week before, Rufus came home from school with a cookie in his book bag. His teacher sent me a message 2 hours after we collected him from school, to tell me that he couldn’t eat it because it contained egg (one of his allergens). Luckily we had already found the cookie and not allowed Rufus to eat it.
Rufus is a bright, confident and astute little boy, especially when it comes to his food allergies. We asked him what he had eaten to make him so poorly at school? He told us, "Teacher gave me a yoghurt. I asked if it was safe for me as I can’t have milk and she said yes. I had one mouthful and didn't like it. I felt sick.” His answer made me crumble inside with sadness, anger and shock. Not only had his teacher given him the yoghurt, Rufus, a 4 year old boy, had checked if it was safe for him to eat.
I have asked that both Ofsted and the school investigate how this happened.
