A grieving mum has told how her little boy was left fighting for his life in a coma just 24 hours after this smiling school photo was taken.
Liam Allen, seven, had epilepsy – which had not been diagnosed – and was getting ready for bed when he had a fit a day later.
His parents and medics battled to get it to stop, but after three-and-a-half hours they had to put him into a coma, and he never woke up.
The last treasured photo shows his doting mum Paula, 38, holding his hand before he slipped away.
She’s releasing the touching photos – taken just two days apart – to raise awareness of the fast nature of epilepsy, a condition Liam was diagnosed with after the post-mortem.
His brother Rory, three, also has the condition, and she said each time before a seizure, the boys have suffered an unexplained high temperature – a sign she never ignores.
The mum-of-five from Rotherham, South Yorkshire said: “I can remember saying to him, ‘make sure you smile and show them your dimples.’
“When he came out of school that day, he was perfectly fine – nothing wrong with him.
“He’d said that morning that he felt a bit poorly, so I explained to his teacher that he had said that – there was a bug around.
“But when I picked him up, they said he’d been absolutely fine.
“He went to his nan’s that night, slept at his nan’s house – he was absolutely fine until the morning.
“She phoned us up and said he’d been sick and he was shivering.
“He seemed fine in the afternoon – he was laid on his bed with his laptop.
“About 9:30pm that night, I checked him again and he’d got a temperature – I gave him some Calpol.
“My husband went in about 10:10pm and told him it was time for bed.
“He went in the bathroom to get washed and brush his teeth, and then when he came out, David shouted, ‘Paula, quick he’s fitting.’
“His right arm was jerking and he was frothing from his mouth.
“To me, I just thought seizures were where they drop to the floor, jerk around for a couple of seconds and then are back up and back to normal.
“I think there’s a bit of naivety – I think a lot of people think the same.
“I never thought that they could die from them.”
The ‘shy but friendly’ boy suffered two seizures before the fatal one.
But they were ten months apart and his mum said it meant doctors were hesitant to diagnose and treat him for epilepsy.
Liam’s younger brother Rory, three, also suffered two seizures previously – he was diagnosed with Epilepsy in May 2019 and is now on medication.
Paula and her husband salesman David, 31, are warning parents of the early signs of seizures, including a high temperature, to avoid similar losses.
Liam’s first seizure on May 9 2018 happened at school – he became unresponsive for an hour and fell unconscious during the car journey to Rotherham Hospital.
The second was on March 23 2019 in a supermarket car park – Liam was unresponsive for 45 minutes before falling unconscious and struggling for oxygen.
His third was at home on November 23 2019, where David found Liam jerking on his right side and frothing from the mouth.
Paula’s eldest had gone into school for school photos the day before his seizure.
Doctors tried to stop the seizure for three hours – after no success, they put Liam into a medically-induced coma.
He was transferred to Sheffield Teaching Hospital for further treatment in the ICU, but there was nothing the doctors could do.
Liam passed on November 24.
Paula admits she didn’t know enough about seizures and didn’t take early warning signs seriously before.
She said: “There are a lot of different types of seizures – there’s not just falling on the floor and jerking.
“The ones where he was sitting in the car, he was just quite vacant and not responding to me.
“People need to not take them for granted – and a temperature is a lot to do with a lot of seizures.
“They both had temperature first, so now I don’t just pass the temperature off.
“I never thought that a temperature would be so dangerous for them.”