'Get checked out': Warning of parents whose son's pains and rash were much more serious
04.03.2023 - 11:07
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Jessica had just run her bath for her teenage son Harvey to help with his severe back and leg pains. For days, she had been giving him tablets prescribed to help him cope with the 'agonising' pains - but nothing seemed to be working.
16-year-old Harvey, who is autistic, and lives with his mum Jessica, dad Stuart and four siblings in Middleton, first started complaining of the pains in his back and his legs. He was given paracetamol and ibuprofen, but, within a few days, it had escalated and he was struggling to walk properly.
His parents instantly knew something was wrong. Jessica said Harvey has always had a high pain threshold, not even shedding a tear when he broke his arm as a young child - but that he was clearly 'in agony.'
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They visited Oldham Hospital's A&E department on February 9, where Jessica said a doctor 'felt his back' and said Harvey's 'muscles were tight'. He was prescribed diazepam and they were sent home.
But the pain he was experiencing had become 'unbearable'. Harvey was not improving and was crying in his room at night. Concerned mum-of-five Jessica, who is a nurse, ran him a warm bath to try and soothe the pain, when she noticed he had a rash on his feet that had spread to his arms.
"As he came out of the bath he noticed a rash coming on his arm and said he had it on his feet. All I could describe it as was speckly, like burst blood vessels where the blood comes to the surface of the skin," Jessica told the Manchester Evening News.
"We had taken him to A&E because it had escalated to the point where he couldn't walk. He was in absolute agony."
Days later, on February 14, after struggling to get hold of a GP, Jessica