Second mum says four-year-old son ‘needed resuscitating’ after drinking slushy drink
What started out as a delightful mother-son afternoon out quickly turned sour for mum Beth Green and her four-year-old son Albie, after an iced slushy drink nearly stole the youngster's life - following news of a similar case earlier this week.
The pair had enjoyed a trip to their local bowling alley after school back on 13 October, where reception pupil Albie had met a friend while mum Beth waited for them to finish.
After the two tots played their game, they proceeded to gulp down a small, strawberry-flavoured slushy.
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Within a matter of minutes, Beth claims her son's personality began to change, and that Albie had suddenly become much more irritable than she was used to.
"At about 4.15pm he started getting a bit tired and agitated, he didn't want to play anymore," the concerned mum, 24, recalled.
"We just thought he was tired and had a long week at school. When he got in the car he kept saying he was tired. He physically couldn't keep himself awake, his head kept dropping."
She and her partner Fred Pegg, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, then attempted to alleviate his distress by taking the toddler to McDonald's, but Albie couldn't touch a bite of his meal.
It was then, she says, that her little boy began clawing at his own face and hallucinating.
"It was a really strange experience. He kept screaming 'no' and 'leave me alone' in his car seat. He was screaming then going floppy again," Beth explained.
"I thought 'maybe he has a virus and is agitated' but he started clawing at himself and couldn't keep himself awake. He wasn't responding."
After receiving advice from Albie's grandmother, the couple rushed him to A&E at The George Eliot Hospital, where doctors attempted to wake him, but to no avail.
"They took him to the resus room where they started giving him rescue breaths because he wasn't breathing by himself and his heartbeat was extremely low," Beth said.
"They had to resuscitate him."
Albie went on to receive treatment for the likes of sepsis, and Beth and Fred were asked about the likelihood of their son having gotten his hands on drugs, or if he could have been exposed to insulin.
Like his heartbeat, his blood sugar levels had dropped dangerously low.
"We got told by the leading consultant that if we'd taken him home instead of hospital, he would've died. It was a very scary realisation," the heartbroken mother said.
From there, Albie was transferred via ambulance to the high-dependency unit at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire as he continued drifting in and out of consciousness.
Beth continued: "We didn't know if he would make it through the night, it was horrific. They thought he could be diabetic because his blood sugar levels were so low.
"There were talks of a hereditary disorder."
After three days, the youngster's condition stabilised, and he, Beth and Fred returned home.
It wasn't until several months and numerous tests later that medics discovered that Albie's health scare was likely due to glycerol intolerance after he consumed his strawberry slushy.
"We were shocked," Beth admitted. "He'd had slushies so many times before. Why had he only had a reaction now?
"I was angry that it was something so simple. I'm a parent that's conscious of what her child consumes.
"As a parent, this is something that every child has which is marketed towards children at theme parks, bowling, cinemas - that drink is always there."
Being the second child to almost lose their life in such unexpected circumstances, Beth said she feels 'shocked' that a drink often marketed towards children could cause such an adverse reaction.
She believes the recommended age to have the iced drink should be raised to 10.
"He'd had slushies so many times before," she added.
"Why had he only had a reaction now?
"I was angry that it was something so simple. I'm a parent that's conscious of what her child consumes.
"As a parent, this is something that every child has which is marketed towards children at theme parks, bowling, cinemas - that drink is always there.
"They need to raise the limit on the guidelines. I don't think they should be sold to under-10s.
"We nearly lost our son's life. We've never experienced anything like this before, he's always been a fit and healthy child."
Rhianna Benson