Stuart Bryan Grundy

Thank-you so much to Barbara Rose Daughter of James Haddow & Sister of James Haddow Jnr for the
lovely pics of my angel Stuart xXx


Stuart Boo Boo went to sleep on the 23rd of October 2006 aged only 9 years old just four days before
his tenth Birthday. Stuart had Cerebral Palsy he was blind, had Hydrocephalus through a bleed to the
brain which meant he had a shunt put in to drain fluid , Curvature of the spine, seizures all due to
being a prem baby he was 10 weeks early but despite all this and many more problems he was such a
happy little boy who was dearly loved by all his family and friends. Stuart needed 24 hour care from
being born which was given to him by his family. He had the most beautiful smile that put anybody in
a good mood and a laugh that was infectious to anybody listening. He was a very brave little boy who
fought very hard to stay with us right up until the end Stuart suffered greatly a horrific 14
operations in hospital during a 12 month stay. Our Mum and Dad stayed by his side throughout and did
not leave the hospital grounds at any time. Stuart Died of Septicaemia, pneumonia and renal failure,
but had many other life threatening illnesses which he fought during the 12 month stay Stuart is
missed very much by all his family and by all people who knew him and he will always be in our
thoughts and hearts. Stuart loved to listen to music and noisy toys as he was blind and he loved to
listen to different sounds around him. He will always be remembered as a very happy little boy and a
little fighter love you Stuart and miss you so much rest in peace baby love shelly xXxXxXxXxXxXxX
From the day Stuart was born he fought he was 10 weeks early and weighed 41b 12 and a half ounces
but he had breathing problems and put on life support he was taken off at 3 days old then he had a
massive seizure when they did a brain scan they told us that he had a bleed in both sides of his
brain we knew then he was not going to come out of that without any problems but we willed him to
pull through which he did he had to be transferred to Manchester to have a shunt inserted to drain
the fluid off his brain which went well we finally got him home at 3 months old and that was the
best day of our lives although we knew he was going to have problems we dealt with each one of them
as they arose we knew by his progress that he had been affected but he was so happy he could not do
anything but we never gave up we did all his physiotherapy and things to stimulate him but that did
not affect his personality he was the happiest little boy anyone could wish for When he was 8 months
we was told he had cerebral palsy but we already knew with already having 3 other children that he
was not making any mile stones but that never bothered us we always said as long as he is here we
would do everything for him Stuart was such a good and happy baby while we was seeing him smile and
happy we was happy all he wanted in life was love which he always got we would never ever let him go
to anyone we never left him to be looked after by anyone when we went to hospital for check ups the
doctor always said have you thought about respite and then laughed because he knew we would not let
him out of our sight we used to take him to an assessment centre once a week for physiotherapy we
used to watch and learn we did his physiotherapy at home and make it fun for him some days he liked
it and some days he didn’t but he would let us know when he had enough When Stuart got to 5
although he ate all his meals blended and had milk he was not gaining weight which became a big
issue for me the doctors wasn’t that worried but I knew he should of weighed a lot more than he
did the doctors started listening after me pleading I always kept a record of all his intake and how
much he was being sick they then decided he needed a gasterostomy to feed him they then said he
should pile it on but he never I kept insisting it was the milk what he was having because when he
was sick he had not even digested it so after a while they changed it to a different one straight
away I noticed when he was sick he had digested it he started to gain weight a lot after that he was
really well in his self and was not sick as much with it
Stuart was such a happy little boy who hardly ever cried when he did we knew it was not for nothing
he was hardly ever hospitalised even though he had so many problems he was quite well in his self
apart from chest infections he had his gastterostomy fitted which was to feed him through his
stomach to prevent him from aspirating in to his lungs we never ever needed respite care for him
because he was so good. He started school but he was showing signs of distress so we fought to keep
him at home with us and it was agreed because we had all the same equipment at home so we did all
that for him the education welfare helped us because he was happier at home and he proved that to
them when they would visit they could not believe all the things we had and did for him to stimulate
him so we won he had so many problems but he was the happiest little boy I had ever known everything
we did revolved around him not just with us but his sisters and brother they loved him just like we
did and they never got pushed out because of him needing so much care.
In august 05 i had him at the doctors because he was sleeping in the day which was not Stuart she
gave me antibiotics by the end of the day we was not happy because he had slept too much I thought
he could have a blocked shunt so I took him to hospital I left the hospital at 9 o’clock he was
tired but still smiling his daddy stayed by his bed as only one of us was aloud at 2 o’clock in
the morning my husband phoned me I knew as soon as he spoke I could hear the fear in his voice he
said can you come down I have never moved so fast my uncle took me when I got there the doctor said
he had gone in to a coma I run to him as he did not respond to voices he didn’t know their was
loads of doctors with him I spoke to Stuart and made a noise with my comb which he loved and he give
me a big smile the nurses could not believe it then the doctor said his x ray shows double pneumonia
she wanted to let him go but I screamed no. The anaesthetist was their holding his head in a
position to keep his saturations up he said we can vent him the doctor said have you seen the x ray
and he said yes I have but I think we should ventilate him I wanted to hug him, the doctor was not
happy with him but she said to us the chances are we will still lose him I screamed please give him
a chance so they did and he went on it fine they then transferred him to Manchester we could not go
in the ambulance with him because of all the team that came for him when we got to Manchester we had
to wait while they sorted him a doctor came out and said to us we don’t know how he is going to be
we will try and do what we can a week after they extra bated him but he struggled by the end of the
day so the doctor said we will put him back on the vent for a few more days to see how he goes a few
days past and they extra bated him again and he was great they moved him to a ward later that day he
was doing really well apart from needing oxygen but only a very small amount as Stuart was sleeping
I noticed he dropped saturations more but when I corrected his head position it improved but also
his tonsils were quite large so the ENT come and had a look he suggested for Stuart to have them
done while we was in by this time it had been 8 weeks the doctor discharged him but said we want to
bring Stuart in for an overnight saturation study then we brought him home he had been fine he had a
big party for his 9th birthday then in November the day before we were due to go to hospital for the
saturation study Stuart again was a bit snuffely on the day we went i mentioned he had slept all the
way down which was not Stuart the next morning he was still sleeping so I asked them to check his
shunt they did a brain scan and that was fine they then did a chest x ray as Stuart was sleeping too
much and not responding as he did he had pneumonia again but they did not have any icu beds so they
said we will put him on hdu and see how he manages with 100 percent oxygen and antibiotics after
about 2 weeks he was doing ok but still needed a bit of oxygen because of the oxygen the doctors
decided he needed a tracheotomy as his saturations were still dropping a bit but it was also to do
with positioning of his head so they said it would help with that, he had his tracheotomy inserted
in December 05 when he came back Stuart was extending his neck I asked a nurse to put something
under his tracheotomy tapes as I could see the tapes digging in to his neck but they said he
didn’t need anything a few hours later it was noticed the tapes had cut through his neck he had a
big laceration to the back of his neck he had to have a viability nurse to come and dress the cut
because it was quite deep
we was worried about how he would react to the tracheotomy because the nurses said he may be
frightened when he comes round from the anaesthetic and panic but he never we were amazed as he just
give us a great big smile although he knew there was something different because he tried to make
noises but couldn’t we could tell when he was laughing because all his little body shook He was
then moved on to a ward we was waiting for results of a sputum test when it came back he had
pseudomonas which is caused through the ventilator and is always in the cavity of the chest once
contracted the doctors came and spoke to us about a gastric disassociation which is where they
separate the oesophagus from the stomach which is a major operation but the doctor sat us down and
said if he didn’t have it we would lose him with the next chest infection as Stuart aspirated in
to his lungs when he was sick so we did not have much choice because we was not prepared to lose him
the doctor said the operation would stop him aspirating he was so sure it would help him in the long
term so we agreed they cancelled the op 4 times because of emergencies then in march the date was
given we had been in since November the morning of the op the chest specialists came and checked him
and said his chest was clear so they took him it took 8 hours he came back he was not ventilated
which we expected him to be for he had tubes all over I asked the nurse to put some splints on his
hands because he was thrashing about I knew what he was capable of they said their was no need we
went to get a drink when we went back to icu the doctor who did the op was their our hearts sank he
said we have to take him back to theatre because Stuart had pulled a tube out which meant another 2
hours we was so angry if they had done what we asked that could have been prevented when Stuart came
back he was ventilated this time the shunt Stuart had in his brain had to be externalised so it did
not get infected that was taped at the back of him the next day Stuart took a turn for the worst as
he lay in icu one of the nurses was moving him and snapped the tube to his shunt he already was
fighting septicaemia the nurse tried to rejoin the tube with no gloves the next Stuart had an
infection in his brain which meant he had to have antibiotics injected straight to his brain they
withdrew fluid twice a day to see if the antibiotics where doing the job he had to go to theatre to
have a new tube attached when we went to recovery to get him he was having breathing problems they
asked us to let him go I got a catheter tube and went down his tracheotomy to suction him and said
it was blocked at this time they was waiting for doctors from icu to come but after clearing some of
the plug from his tracheotomy he started to pick up so they took him to hdu when we got back I
changed his tracheotomy and their was a plug blocking his airway but they wanted to let him go then
a week after he had to go back to theatre to have the drain removed again and another 1 put in
because of the infection he came back on life support machine yet again the next day the doctors
asked us to go in a room they was asking us to let Stuart go and turn his life support off both me
my husband was there and my 3 other children none of us would agree we felt he would pull through he
amazed everyone he did pull through and moved on to hdu he was on their for a week I noticed lots of
blood coming from his wound in his stomach I asked for someone to check it they came and took all
the dressings off it was starting to open so they put loads of sterri strips on to close it up I
asked would it hold as Stuart had a very strong cough they said yes it was all covered back up that
same evening I again noticed oozing coming from the site the nurse don’t worry we will watch it if
needed I will call the on call doctor the next morning I pulled the cover off Stuart and we could
see loads of oozing the nurse phoned the doctors they did not come straight away we went to use the
phone as I got to the outside doors an auxiliary nurse was running she shouted can you come back she
would not tell us why when we got back all the crash team was all around Stuart we had to sign a
form for them to take him to theatre as all his stomach had burst open all over the bed which is
what we feared was going to happen when he came back from theatre he was taken again to icu on a
ventilator as they was sorting him out I noticed a big burn on his foot I asked how and why they
said they did not know well I kicked off because if I had taken my little boy in hospital with that
they would have been asking loads of questions so I wanted to know they investigated it and the
answer was we must of spilt iodine on the heat blanket in theatre it was a big burn the burns unit
was informed a few days later he started having episodes of screaming and pulling his knees up we
kept saying it was pain in the lower abdomen area the doctors was convinced it was not but we could
tell the way he was moving they said because he had so much invasive surgery it would settle down it
was horrible to watch our son screaming his heart rate was hitting 200 mark and they tried to tell
us it would settle down he had to be sedated it got that bad but still they said it would settle we
know in the end how he was failed by the system he was failed by the medical profession we tried to
tell them if they had of listened to us our little boy would not of suffered as much as he did in
the last 12 months of his little life Stuart had 14 operations in that 12 months he should of only
had 4 on the morning 19th of July the doctors all came round and said we can go home both me and my
husband said he was not ready to go but they assured us things would settle down so we brought him
home on lots of medication from us bringing him home we had the doctors out quite a lot because we
could not dress Stuart as he was sweating profusely and his heart rate was sky high they too said
that it would take time to settle we knew it wasn’t we put our trust in doctors we had an
appointment at Manchester the day we went Stuart was ok but when we got to the hospital he took a
turn for the worst I had never seen him that bad when we saw the doctor he said we will arrange a
scan I said I am not taking him home I want you to admit him Stuart started to go worse so they
phoned an ambulance to take him from one hospital to the other when we got their we was just left
waiting then we were moved to a ward my husband had gone home to get some clothes for us because we
knew we were not going home after we were moved to a ward Stuart was getting worse by this time the
doctors weren’t coming to him the nurses kept calling them eventually a doctor came and said you
can start feeding him now because he cant have the scan till morning he could be hungry I said your
having a laugh does your heart rate hit 250 when your hungry he just went away through the night he
was still as bad he had not passed urine for a day and a half, and they knew that eventually Stuart
was moved over to hdu after they had sedated him all the doctors started moving after that but
Stuart never woke up after that they did scans and the ultrasound showed all what they was feeding
him had gone all round his little body in his colon everywhere then all his vital organs was
shutting down he had septicaemia pneumonia and renal failure we knew all that time it was in the
abdomen area whatever it was but they knew best our little boys body had took all it could I just
pray to god no other child has to suffer what our baby had to suffer we just wish they would of
listened to us and maybe our little boy would still be the happy little boy he always was and with
us today I hope you can understand what I have wrote thank you for reading my little boys short
little life
if only they would of listened we stayed with him and did all his cares we even changed his bed
twice daily changed all the oxygen tubing changed his tracheotomy gave all his medication they made
up for him they could not even get that right he was overdosed on 3 occasions. he had been in icu so
many times fighting on life support his little body could not fight anymore in all that 12 months we
never left his side we lived with him at the hospital we never came home at all we had to watch not
only our baby suffer but lots of other children as well
in our heart we was robbed of a baby we loved and dedicated our lives too so you will understand why
we will never be able to move on without him WE LOVE YOU WITH ALL OUR HEARTS BABE NEVER A DAY GOES
BY WITHOUT WE ASK WHY? WHY YOU. YOU COULD NEVER OF HURT ANYONE ALL YOU NEEDED IN LIFE WAS LOVE WHICH
WE GAVE YOU AND YOU GAVE US WE MISS YOU SOOOOO MUCH xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXxXxXxXxXx