‘WE FEARED WORST’ AFTER GRANDSON ATE SEAGULL DROPPINGS
AN 18-MONTH-OLD boy suffered kidney failure after he ingested seagull droppings while out playing in his garden. Jaydon Pritchard is “still not out of the woods” completely but is doing much better, according to his grandparents Arwel and Christine, who look after him along with his mother Tiffany at their home in Amlwch in Anglesey.
The traumatic ordeal began on April 6 when Jaydon was taken to see a doctor after feeling unwell for the previous couple of days. The doctor referred Jaydon to Bangor’s Ysbyty Gwynedd where he was later discharged after his family were told he was suffering from a virus.
His grandfather said Jaydon “didn’t do anything apart from sleep and be sick” the next day until later on in the evening, when they heard a “horrible noise coming from his cot”.
“He was having a fit, so we called for an ambulance straight away,” said
Arwel. “He had another fit before the ambulance arrived and another three fits on the way to the hospital. It was like he was looking through you. He didn’t recognise anyone.
“There was a point where we really thought we were going to lose him. It was horrific.”
After being rushed to Ysbyty Gwynedd for the second time, a team from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool were sent to pick up Jaydon within a few hours.
He was hooked up to a dialysis machine and received three blood transfusions during his 19-day stay at the hospital.
“The doctors diagnosed him with kidney failure and told us that he had E.coli poisoning from having ingested the seagull faeces,” said Arwel.
“We were fearing the worst at the time, seeing his little body hooked up to the dialysis machine and his face turned yellow.”
The ordeal has been “traumatising” for the family, although Jaydon is doing “much better now than what he was a couple of weeks ago”.
His grandmother said she was “apprehensive” over leaving him in the garden again.
“I clean the patio every day, but it’s difficult because the seagulls are nesting nearby and it’s a constant mess to clean up,” she said.
“Poor Jaydon is on all sorts of medications now, we just hope that he’s not suffered any permanent issues. He’s still not himself, he’s still quite grey, but he’s getting there slowly.
“Young children are constantly putting things in their mouth and we hope that this ordeal can serve as reminder for parents and guardians to make sure that their children are playing in a safe environment.”