BABY LAY NEXT TO DEAD MUM FOR TWO DAYS
Heartbroken mum tells of her agony after discovery of teenage daughter
A FAMILY has been left devastated after a young mum died, next to her fivemonth-old baby.
Courtney Newlands, who had Type 1 diabetes, was described as “beautiful inside and out”.
A HEARTBROKEN mum has been left numb with grief after her teenage daughter was found dead in her flat, with her five-month-old baby next to her, alive but dehydrated.
Courtney Newlands, 19, lay in her flat for two days before police broke down the door, prompted by her anxious family. They found Courtney lying on the couch with baby Dylan beside her in his cot.
Dylan was rushed to hospital and kept in for two days after having treatment for dehydration.
Courtney’s mum Lorraine and sister, also Lorraine, 23, had become concerned because they had not not heard from the teenager, as the close family spoke every day.
It is thought that Courtney may have suffered complications from Type 1 diabetes, caused by the pregnancy, but so far tests have not given medics definite answers.
She is believed to have died between the night of Tuesday, February 19 and morning of Wednesday, February 20.
Lorraine, 43, who lives in Pollok, said: “I think it’s affecting us more because we don’t really know.
“The way we are looking at it is, if it had been one more day would Dylan be here?
“It’s a shame because Dylan was crying the other day and I played a video of Courtney and he just stared at her phone. He stopped crying straight away.
“We are going to keep playing them because it will make him feel as if she’s still there.”
Courtney was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was four. Lorraine says she phoned medics four times one night because she was so concerned about her daughter’s symptoms.
She said: “I was told to give her Calpol.
“You know yourself that something is wrong. She wasn’t getting up and her eyes were rolling in her head.
“I rushed her down straight way and as soon as we got her to hospital she collapsed.
“They had to hook her up to machines. I’m lucky I got her there.
“Everyone thinks that diabetes is easy but it’s not as easy as what people think. You have to do daily checks, you can’t eat or drink what you want.
“I managed it for her but it affected her more in her later years. She fell pregnant and had two miscarriages, last year and the year before that.
“With her being pregnant there were more complications. One happened between six to eight weeks and the other was just under three months. She almost died after one of the miscarriages because she got the flu, it was as simple as that.”
The miscarriages were put down to complications caused by Courtney’s diabetes and Lorraine says her daughter feared she would never be able to have children but she fell pregnant again last year.
Lorraine said: “Because of what happened before, she had more information about what she had to do but she had a hard time. She wasn’t well the whole way through her pregnancy and had to get a Caesarean section.
“It was affecting her and affecting Declan. He was taking everything out of her. They had to deliver him two months early.
“He was born with only one kidney, which might have been to do with being premature but he was fine.”
Lorraine , who lives with her partner Alan, said Courtney relished being a new mum and focused all her energy into take care of Declan. The teenager had also recently moved into her first flat, in Penilee, with her boyfriend, also Declan.
Lorraine said: “The last time I spoke to her was on the Tuesday night online. She had said she was feeling a wee bit peely wally. She had had a cold.
“I said to her to phone the diabetes nurse and she sent me pictures of Dylan and that was it.
“We were emailing her and texting her the next day and hearing nothing and it wasn’t like her. She hadn’t been on Facebook and she was on every day posting pictures of the baby.
“I just had this terrible feeling. I said to my daughter, phone the police and she told me she was already at the flat and there was no answer and she couldn’t hear the baby.
“Then I said, just call the police. There is obviously something wrong. I was at the flat and there were ambulances and police but they wouldn’t let me in.
“They said she was there for two days and nobody knew she was there.
“She was lying on the couch with a cover over her and her Lucozade and insulin next to her.
“The police were really good, they changed Dylan’s nappy and gave him some milk. They kept him in hospital for two days for observation but he was fine.
“It just came out of the blue. All we know is that she was there for two days.”
The family are waiting for the results of more detailed tests, which will take six weeks, after the post mortem failed to throw any light on the cause of Courtney’s death.
Lorraine, who is known in
They said she was there for two days and nobody knew she was there
the community for her fundraising work, said: “They did say that if it was something related to the diabetes it would show up in the post mortem but there was nothing there.
“Things as simple as a cold would make her unwell. They had changed her insulin so many times.We don’t know though.
“I think you need to have a family member with Type 1 diabetes know how bad diabetes is and she had the worst one.”
The family are now planning Courtney’s funeral with baby Dylan being cared for by Courtney’s other daughter Lorraine, 26, who has two children.
Lorraine’s son Jordan, 23, is a tattooist, and she is planning to get a tattoo of Courtney’s fingerprint.
She said: “She was just a normal teen, dead bubbly. She had loads and loads of of friends, she was very popular.
“Last week, she had dyed her hair purple and it had turned orange and she was laughing about it.
“Dylan was like a miracle baby to her. If you look at her Facebook page, it was just baby, baby, baby. Every single day, every minute of the day. Dylan is one of those babies who is always smiling. He’s just started to giggle now.
“We’ve got to keep going for Dylan’s sake.”
A Facebook fundraising page has been set up to help the family with funeral costs called RIP Courtney, Fundraising for Lorraine Newlands.