Angel of Death by John Askill Read Free Book Online Page A

severe colic, he thought, and suggested feeding her. He had another patient to see and he would return. Sue gave Becky a feed and, when the GP came back, he winded her. She seemed better. Yes, it must be colic. Becky fell sound asleep.
    Reassuring the now exhausted couple, he told them the best advice to them was to go to bed and get some sleep themselves.
    At 2.30am Katie awoke as expected, ready for her night feed. Sue noticed that Becky, too, was stirring. She picked Becky up in her arms, holding her as always, with her bottom in one hand and the other hand supporting her head, when Becky suddenly went into spasms again. Her little face contorted and her eyes started rolling. It didn’t last long and then she dropped off to sleep again.
    We were so worried, we took her into our double bed and put her between us, thinking that she would wake up in another quarter of an hour for her feed anyway.’
    Becky normally breathed quite heavily when she slept. You could hear the little sighs made by her breathing across the room. Peter was to hear first the awful sound of silence. As he looked down at Becky, he was filled with a sense of panic and shouted: ‘She’s stopped breathing.’
    Sue, still half asleep, told him: Oh, Peter! Don’t be silly.’
    But, as she turned, she could see her husband holding Becky in his arms and trying to blow intoher mouth. She was lying limp and lifeless, like a rag doll. He began massaging her chest, battling to get her back to life, and shouting through tears for Sue to phone for an ambulance.
    They didn’t wait for the ambulance to arrive. They raced instead to their car and drove to the hospital, half a mile away, dashing straight up to the doors of the Accident and Emergency Department where they pressed the emergency doorbell, virtually kicking the door down. In the middle of the night the door was locked for security reasons. A nurse quickly opened it and Sue, who had been holding Becky, thrust the limp, lifeless body into her arms.
    The nurse ran off shouting: ‘Resus. Resus.’
    But it was too late. Becky was already dead. She had died at home as she lay in their bed after her last outburst of screams. The hospital did what it could but Becky was pronounced dead at 3.55am on 5 April 1991.
    Sue remembers that every nurse at the hospital seemed to be in tears and doctors couldn’t explain what had happened. Genuine words of love and comfort poured out from the staff.
    But why had she died so soon after being discharged from hospital? Becky had been in hospital for two days and been home less than twelve hours. Now she was dead, without any apparent reason. Sue’s thoughts flashed back to the moment when Nurse Allitt had said she should not take her daughter home.
    Now she turned to the doctor on duty anddemanded: ‘I want to know what has killed Becky.’ But he couldn’t tell her.
    He feared it could be meningitis. And Sue was sent hurrying back home to bring in Katie for urgent checks. Whatever it was that had tragically killed Becky might strike down her twin sister too. Katie was taken back to Ward Four for observation.
    It was to be her turn next. Later that same day Katie was fighting for her own little life.

    It was 7.30am when Nurse Bev Allitt arrived to start the day shift on Ward Four. Becky had been dead less than five hours and now she was told to monitor her tiny twin sister, Katie.
    Sue Phillips remembers that, from the start of that day, the nurse was a different person. For the first time she spoke to Sue. Her words, warm and comforting, still stick clear in Sue’s memory. Nurse Allitt whispered: ‘I am ever so sorry, Sue, that Becky died. But don’t worry about Katie. She will be fine.’
    She hadn’t spoken to Sue for three years and now she was genuinely concerned. It was the first indication to Sue that Nurse Allitt even remembered her.
    Sue couldn’t control her anger at the hospital and snapped back: ‘I find it very strange how the staff on this ward