ASTHMA DEATH BOY HAD ‘TOUCHED LIVES OF SO MANY PEOPLE’
Posted on March 5, 2008
Filed Under News, UK |
A teenage boy died after suffering an asthma attack at his brother’s home, an inquest heard.Brandon Jennings, 13, a student at Tiverton High School, died on October 27 after collapsing at the home of his older brother Casey Wheeler, in Lime Road, Tiverton.Brandon, described by school principal Andrew Lovett as a boy “fizzing with energy and fun” who had “touched the lives of so many people”, had a history of the illness, an inquest at Cullompton heard yesterday.
He had been admitted to hospital on several occasions, but since an acute attack in 2003, he had not required medical attention. In a short statement read out by Exeter and Greater Devon coroner Dr Elizabeth Earland, Brandon’s mother, Trudi Wheeler said: “The attack that led to his death was very sudden and unexpected.”
Brandon, who lived at Escot House, in High Street, Cullompton, was visiting his brother’s home when he became ill.Mr Wheeler, in a statement read out in court, said they were about to settle down to watch a television programme just before 9pm, when Brandon called out from upstairs.“He was shouting that he couldn’t breathe,” said Mr Wheeler.
He said that he rushed to get Brandon’s nebuliser machine and went upstairs to help his younger brother.
But when he got to him, Brandon “was purple and was not breathing”.
An ambulance was called and Brandon was taken to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after 11pm.
A post-mortem examination, carried out by pathologist Dr Paul Newman, of the RD &E, confirmed that Brandon died of an acute asthma attack.
Dr Earland said: “I am satisfied that at approximately 9pm, on Saturday, October 27, 2007, Brandon Jennings got into difficulty with his breathing. The cause of death is acute asthma.”
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