8 year old UK boy died of scurvy

ceadaoin.

Shocking that in this day and age, a child could die of something like scurvy

http://m.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-31039895

The inquest heard how neither of his parents had sought medical attention for Dylan because they believed he was merely suffering from growing pains, for which they gave him painkillers.

:mad:

Luke92

Had lots of good puns but feel too bad to say them considering the poor chap was only 8! Damn you conscience!

Riddle101

Sad story, my heart goes to the family. Although I question their motives behind not looking for medical attention, and choosing to give him painkillers. As a kid I would never have been given painkillers that young.

ceadaoin.

I wonder if there is more to it? Is there something that could make a person more susceptible to things like that? There are kids everywhere eating nothing but junk but still scurvy is very rare. Poor kid. I'd imagine he would have been in quite severe pain. I don't know why they gave him painkillers rather than get him medical attention

The Backwards Man

Is there any way scurvy could be confused with growing pains, I always thought the symptoms were visible.

Is there any other way to get it other than a lack of Vitamin C?

SEPT 23 1989

pair of them should be charged with neglect and jailed

RIP

Raging_Ninja

Christ. That's as bad as the couple whose baby died in the US because they had it on a vegan diet.

Edit: did a bit of googling and there are several similar cases:

baby dead from rickets in UK

ceadaoin.

From another article it sounds like he was in a pretty bad way. The poor child. If they aren't going to charge the parents with neglect, I hope they have removed any other children from their care. Never brought to the doctor or dentist at 8 years of age? They were neglectful

It was initially thought he had contracted meningitis. However a subsequent post mortem found, amongst other things, massive soft tissue haemorrhage, gum hypertrophy, bleeding gums and loose teeth.

Home office pathologist, Deryk Simon James, concluded that Dylan died of a vitamin C deficiency, known as scurvy. Expert paediatrician Dr David Tuthill added that there was no evidence to suggest the eight year old was unable to eat a normal diet and that he had died from “an easily preventable disease”.

The coroner heard that Dylan had had normal home visits and immunisations up until he was 18 months old. However his parents had been unable to attend his three year check up and declined to rearrange. Although he was registered with local doctors and dentists, no appointments had ever been made.

Wibbs

Rickets I could understand, especially among darker skinned folks living in these kinda latitudes(pale skin converts vitamin D from UV light far more rapidly than dark). Strict veganism and such without real care(like any restrictive diet) could cause issues too, but scurvy? That's a hard enough one to come down with I'd imagine. Even a packet of crisps has some vitamin C. Symptoms would be pretty obvious too I would have thought, though if the poor mite never attended a doctor...

paulosam

Can't be that easy to spot of doctors initially thought the child had passed away due to meningitis.

TwoShedsJackson

paulosam wrote: »

Can't be that easy to spot of doctors initially thought the child had passed away due to meningitis.

Or more likely they didn't consider scurvy first because very very few people have died of that since the 1800s.

biko

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

pair of them should be charged with neglect and jailed

RIP

I think having a child die is punishment enough, as I see it they were ignorant but without intent to cause the child harm.
Hopefully this case will make some other parents aware of the importance of a varied diet.

auldgranny

biko wrote: »

I think having a child die is punishment enough, as I see it they were ignorant but without intent to cause the child harm.
Hopefully this case will make some other parents aware of the importance of a varied diet.

Ah come on. He didn't die of this overnight. It would have taken him some time to die. They deserve prison for willful neglect

steddyeddy

Ascorbic acid deficiency! It's used by an enzyme to make collagen. There should have been symptoms well in advance of the child's death.

Cee-Jay-Cee

I find it hard to believe a child made it to 8 years old and was never seen by a doctor! While there may but be much to gain from prosecuting the parents, they were clearly negligent. The poor child. I hope he's at peace now.

steddyeddy

In fairness scurvy isn't something clinicians see a lot of in this day and age.

steddyeddy

Also I doubt many parents would recognise it as scurvy. One of the symptoms is bone pain.

Canyon86

Sad story!

The last time I heard of Scurvy it was from the age of exploration era!

It's hard to fathom parents not seeking medical attention for a child in pain. Poor little guy, the preventable death of a little child is always upsetting.

The parents may have had no intent to hurt the little guy and they'll pay for their laziness for the rest of their lives, but I doubt a prosecution will make other disinterested parents suddenly pay attention.

Capt'n Midnight

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

Or more likely they didn't consider scurvy first because very very few people have died of that since the 1800s.

The effects of scurvy are well known. If you've done science in secondary school you'll probably have had it mentioned. Lots of pirate films mention Scurvy. It's the UK and you may have hear of British sailors being refereed to as limeys ?

Vitamin C was only discovered in the 1930's and the 1937 Nobel Prizes for Medicine and Chemistry were given for it.

It's completely preventable. Had the parents visited a dentist or doctor or provided any half decent diet this would never have happened.

A bit of fresh fruit , spuds or orange juice
The symptoms of scurvy usually begin three months after a person stops getting enough vitamin C in their diet.

the RDA for an 8 year old is 25mg

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/dylan-mungo-seabridge-inquest-eight-year-old-8539284

Although Dylan was registered as a patient at Newport doctors surgery, there was no record of him being seen as a patient or any appointments being made for him.

The inquest heard how Dylan had also not visited the dentist at which his family registered in 2007.

...

Police officers and paramedics said they had noticed bruising to Dylan’s left ankle and heel area, bruising to his left inner and rear knee, swelling on his legs and a rash or red spots on skin on his lower legs.

“Dylan was noted to have marks on his body, which together with comments made by his parents, suggested he had perhaps contracted meningitis,” added Mr Davies.

A post-mortem revealed a number of abnormal findings including anaemia, soft tissue haemorrhage to the lower legs, lower limb odemia and dental abnormalities including loose teeth.

Pathologist Dr Deryk Simon James concluded that the cause of death was down to a long standing vitamin C deficiency, commonly referred to as scurvy, and not meningitis.

Dr David Tuthill, an expert paediatrician, said there was no evidence to suggest that Dylan could not eat a normal diet.

“Leg pains appear to have happened on at least two or more occasions,” added Mr Davies.

“He received unknown amounts of analgesia. At no time was medical assistance sought for these problems. This death was from scurvy, an easily preventable disease.”

Spook_ie

auldgranny wrote: »

Ah come on. He didn't die of this overnight. It would have taken him some time to die. They deserve prison for willful neglect

steddyeddy wrote: »

Ascorbic acid deficiency! It's used by an enzyme to make collagen. There should have been symptoms well in advance of the child's death.

According to this leaflet that it is only for a duration of 3-4 months that lack of vitimin C will start to produce symptoms of scurvy, that's why sailors of old used to suffer it on long voyages until they were issued with limes to suck on ( hence Limeys as a nickname )

Though given the amount of foods that Vit C is availiable from the lads diet would have been highly restricted, there is the possibility that he may have had an underlying condition such as Crohne's disease that would prevent full uptake of Vit C from a diet

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/vitamin-c-deficiency-leaflet