The dad of a tragic twin who died after a hospital trust failed to provide basic medical care for his meningitis is warning parents about sepsis to prevent them from going through the same tragedy.
Kingsley Olasupo was just ten-days-old when he died at the Royal Bolton Hospital on April 18. 2019, after he was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and sepsis.
Healthcare staff failed to spot signs of infections and thought Kingsley's condition was due to being born premature. Coroner Peter Sigee concluded Kingsley died as a result of natural causes contributed to by neglect.
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Now, three-and-a-half years on from the tragedy, Kingsley’s mum and dad, Tunde Olasupo and Nicola Daley, have spoken about their heartache, setting up a youth centre to help struggling children and educating parents on the signs of sepsis to help them prevent them from going through the same agony.
Mr Olasupo, 31, told the Manchester Evening News : “As young parents ourselves, we were very clueless.
"Whatever we got told by the doctors we believed, the experience would have been better if we had a clue as to what was happening, maybe we would have changed the outcome. Everything happened so very quickly, from the start to the finish it was awful, they treated him like he wasn’t a human at all.
“We never dreamt of this moment, we never wanted to be an example of what can go wrong but now that it’s happened we don’t want his memory to go in vain.
“We want to educate other parents so they don’t go through the traumatic experience we went through, so they’re more clued up as to what’s going on, what they need to be watching out for, especially around sepsis. It was the worst experience ever, something that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.
“We are able to provide a professional nurse to help families going through similar situations with a nurse who can quickly intervene and give families information to make better informed decisions. That gives others the opportunity we weren’t given at the time and allows other people to understand what their rights are and educate people on how serious sepsis can be and how to prevent that from getting fatal.”
Over the last few years, dad Tunde and mum Nicola, who have three other children together including Kingsley's twin sister Princess, have been building the Believe Achieve centre, the home of a charity youth project set up in Kingsley’s memory to give other children a better future and help worried parents avoid the same heartbreak.
Sitting in the old Barclays bank on Market Street, Farnworth, the Believe Achieve centre is the base for their work on the project, which provides activities for children such as dance, sport, and computing classes. A professional nurse will also visit the site on a weekly basis to help ease families’ worries about the health of their young children, and explain any issues to them in a way Tunde and Nicola weren’t able to have in the hospital.
The pair also decided to create a counselling service for bereaved children, after watching the impact their son’s death had on his three siblings, and even a foodbank to support low-income families. Believe Achieve is dedicated to Kingsley’s memory, with a memorial plaque with his picture and a short description of his story to be installed outside the building.
Speaking about the project, Mr Olasupo added: “One of the reasons why we created Believe Achieve is that the whole situation affected our confidence forever. Kingsley was born a twin and his sister is with us always, every single morning we wake up and see his sister, and what happened to Kingsley is something we’ll have to explain to her as she grows up. This makes things easier as his sister grows up and sees this helping other families from what happened to her brother, which helps us explain to her and helps her understand exactly what happened to him when they were both born.
"Nothing will ever replace Kingsley but his memory will always help other families. We just want his memory to live forever really. It’s been helpful, putting a smile on other families’ faces, that helps us, that’s a good feeling. It’s about boosting the quality of life and better future experience too. Every car that’s driving past, every person walking by that sees the plaque and the picture can think of what actually happened, even the nurses, reminding them that this is the kid that brought the change and a new system.
"To the hospital it’s just a new system and it can only go so far but that will always put a memory and help remind them even when they forget the procedures or forget what to do, that memory will help them get back to the system. A lot of people give their trust to the doctors and the hospital, we feel like we’ve been let down- we’re not the first and if we’re not careful we’re not going to be the last ones.”
The centre will officially open on November 12, with an opening ceremony scheduled for 12-7pm with performances, a workshop about sepsis, and food vendors at the site. Some of the 700 young people already registered will be part of the dance performances, with fairground rides, the foodbank service, and the private nurse all on site to mark the opening, before a fireworks display rounds out the evening.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Bolton Mayor Akhtar Zaman are both expected to attend, unveiling the plaque in Kingsley’s memory and cutting the ribbon to officially open the centre. The event, and the organisation in general, will be part of Kingsley’s parents' attempts to raise awareness of the dangers of sepsis, to help other parents understand the signs and symptoms to look out for.
According to the UK Sepsis Trust, signs of sepsis in children that need urgent medical attention include: fast or difficulty breathing, “fits” or convulsions, mottled bluish or pale skin, a rash that doesn’t fade when it’s pressed, trouble waking them or being sleepier than normal, and being cold to the touch. Children under five present slightly differently in cases of sepsis, and medical attention should be sought for young children who don’t feed, vomit repeatedly, or have not passed urine for 12 hours.
Sepsis is a very serious condition affecting the blood after an infection or injury, and five people die with sepsis every hour in the UK according to the charity. If it’s not treated immediately, sepsis can lead to organ failure or death. These symptoms should be discussed with a healthcare professional as soon as possible, either by attending A&E, calling 111 or 999 depending on the severity of the symptoms, or by visiting your GP - asking whether sepsis could be behind the symptoms.
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