A HEARTBROKEN Ribble Valley mother today slammed a health service which forced her to travel to Stoke on Trent to find an intensive care bed for her dying son.

Mrs Helen Jackson has nothing but praise for doctors and nurses at Blackburn's Queen's Park Hospital but when her desperately ill son, Lewis, needed more specialist care, the family were told the nearest bed would be 80 miles away in Stoke.

Mrs Jackson and her husband, John, had to leave their home in Monk Street, Clitheroe, their four-year-old son Oliver with his grandma and their jobs to take Lewis to Stoke where he fell into a coma and died.

Mrs Jackson said: "We just couldn't believe what we were hearing when we were told there wasn't a bed for Lewis - not even at Pendlebury Hospital in Manchester where he has been regularly.

"We were absolutely disgusted with the health authority, it made a tragic and traumatic time for us so much worse.

"We had been trying to make Christmas as normal as possible for Oliver but then we had to leave him for almost a week to stay with Lewis.

"Now our little boy has gone but the whole business has left us feeling bitter."

Lewis, who was 21-months-old, had been born with the same genetic defect as his brother Oliver.

It means the child's development is slower than normal and that they are physically smaller than other children of the same age.

Both boys also had heart defects - in Oliver's case it hasn't affected his health much but Lewis has had to have hospital treatment and a series of drugs for much of his young life.

Mrs Jackson said: "The doctors have told us that the boys' genetic condition was relatively new and rare and that it didn't have a name. Lewis started with the 'flu and this made his condition deteriorate rapidly until he fell into a coma at Stoke.

"We have been told that it would have only been a matter of time before he became desperately ill anyway but it would have been more of a comfort for us if we could have had him nearer home."

A spokesman from the North West Regional health Authority said: "At the time when this family needed specialist care for their son, all the intensive care beds at both children's hospitals in Manchester and Liverpool were full.

"There was also a problem with staff sickness due to the 'flu bug at both hospitals and therefore it was not possible to create more space.

"It is sad and tragic when people have to travel a long way from home to get the hospital care they need but unfortunately nursing staff are not immune to the colds and 'flu which affect everyone else."

Lewis' funeral is to be held on Wednesday at St Bartholomew's Church, Chipping, followed by creation at Preston.

Mrs Jackson has asked for donations in lieu of flowers to be given to Queen's Park Hospital.

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