Scott Wells – 4 weeks

Scott was born on the 12 of November 2006 about 6am, at about an hour old he became very irritable and started having seizures. Julie raised her concerns with the staff at Aberdeen maternity hospital and was reassured that this was not uncommon! After several hours of his fits he was taken down to the neo-natal unit for tests and monitoring. After 2 weeks of antibiotics (due to traces of meconium in his birth waters), brain scans, blood tests and being in an incubator Scott was given the all clear as no reason could be found for his seizures and his seizures had stopped. Scott had been given a “full mot” and was a perfectly healthy baby

Scott was home for 2 weeks where nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. He was a hungry baby who suffered from colic. Julie was breastfeeding and he would often need a top up from the bottle.

On the 10th of December I dressed Scott in his little Aberdeen FC strip before changing him for his bed, he was unsettled most the evening with colic but he slept for a few hours before waking about 2am hungry. Julie started feeding him and told me to go back to bed as I had work the following morning. Scott remained unsettled that night. I left for work about 6am. By the time I had got to work out at Inchmarlo a workmate had a call from my boss saying I had to get to hospital as Scott had been rushed in. I was left to make my own way into Aberdeen by bus and eventually got to the hospital at 10:30am where Scott was conscious and being treated whilst Julie had been waiting for me to arrive. Julie was told by a member of staff at the hospital that it looked like Scott had suffocated or choked.

Julie told me she had been breastfeeding in bed the way she had been show by staff in the maternity hospital when she realised Scott had stopped breathing, Julie dialled 999 and was talked through CPR until the ambulance arrived. The ambulance arrived within 3 minutes of the call being made; they got his heart going again in the ambulance. The doctors worked on Scott as we waited for news. When the news came it was not what we hoped. Although Scott was stable he was very critical and the outlook was not good. By this time the police had arrived. We were told that Scott would need to be transferred to either Yorkhill or Edinburgh PICU. At 5PM Scott was transferred to Edinburgh PICU. Myself and Julie were offered train tickets to get down there, however the police volunteered to drive us. When we eventually got to Scott’s bedside we were given approximately half an hour with him before being separated and taken away to be questioned by the police, the questioning lasted till 1am.

Over the following days Scott continued to deteriorate. On one occasion we were given false hope Scott would recover after a nurse had asked who we were in to see, we explained our son, to which we were told that “he was awake and had taken a feed” – she was speaking about the wrong child.

On the 13th we were told that Scott was with effect shutting down and the head neurosurgeon told us there was no hope of recovery. The Dr in charge of Scott told us it was a matter of time and we could either let him die of his own accord or we could switch off his life support. We asked if we could not do it on the 14th of December due to being Julies Dad’s birthday, unfortunately it was not an option available. All the close family had made the trip to be with us and said their goodbyes to Scott on the morning of the 14th December. Myself and Julie sat with Scott when they switched off his life support at 1PM.

We were told we would have to identify Scott after they had transferred him home to Aberdeen. I didn’t want to leave Edinburgh without Scott and asked if the hospital could phone me and let me know Scott was going home. There was no word of the police arriving to pick Scott up; our train was delayed with still no sign of Scott heading home. Just as our train pulled out of Edinburgh we received word that Scott had been picked up and was heading home.

Scott’s funeral was on the 27th of December 2006 which is my sister’s birthday. It was the only date we could get to hold his funeral before the end of the year.

Scott’s life was very short but massive on the impact it has had on us, he is missed everyday and thought of everyday. His short life has motivated me to do crazy things like run a marathon, walk on fire, break arrows with my neck and train to be a Befriender to help others who sadly find themselves in the saddest of situations.

We have now gone on to have a 3 year old daughter Rachel who more than keeps us on our toes with her mischief making and I can only imagine the mischief Scott would have got up to with his little sister.

Paul (Dad)