Deadly asthma attack

WATCHING on as her 11-year-old son collapsed to the floor, overcome by a silent asthma attack, Dianne Britt endured every parent’s worst nightmare on Tuesday evening as her son’s life slipped away before her. Yesterday, Ms Britt and her partner Robert Livingstone struggled to come to terms with just how quickly Jayden’s asthma had intensified.

“He woke up about 10.45pm and he started coughing,” Ms Britt said.

Comforting Jayden, she gave him his Ventolin puffer which he inhaled through his spacer, as prescribed by their doctor.

“He sort of went a little bit funny,” she said.

“It is hard to describe. The next thing I knew he was falling to the ground. He looked like he was asleep.”

Ms Britt quickly realised Jayden was not breathing.

Calling for an ambulance, she said Jayden began to turn blue around the mouth. Paramedics guided Ms Britt through CPR as they made their way to her Wagga home, where they then took over and worked to transport Jayden to Wagga Base Hospital.

“They kept working with him,” she said.

“They got his heart beating and his pulse going for about 10 minutes.”

Unfortunately, just after midnight, Jayden passed away.

Ms Britt said though Jayden had been diagnosed with asthma shortly after his first birthday, the condition had never been too severe.

“This year he had been quite good,” she said.

“The only thing I put it down to is that he had been going to the Botanic Gardens a bit.”

She said maybe it was the pollen or something in the environment that had triggered his asthma.

“The couple of nights before he had been up coughing,” she said, though she said the coughing was nothing out of the ordinary.

In the past when Jayden’s asthma had played up he would take a tablet a day to help ease the condition, but he had not shown any of the signs or symptoms of bad asthma leading up to Tuesday night.

Ms Britt described Jayden as an active boy, who loved running around and playing with his friends.

Mr Livingstone yesterday couldn’t speak highly enough of the paramedics and hospital staff who had worked to assist his son. He said Jayden, a year 6 student at Sturt Public School, was a loving little boy who worked hard and was always willing to help out his family.

Mr Livingstone said of a weekend Jayden would help him load up their van with goods and take them down to the markets.

Once at the markets Jayden would help him unload the van, even the heavy items, as they prepared for a busy morning.

Mr Livingstone said Jayden’s two younger sisters and younger brother were struggling to understand the loss.

As published in the Daily Advertiser, February 17, 2012 and The Sydney Morning Herald, February 18, 2012.