Busted singer Charlie Simpson has warned parents of the signs and symptoms of secondary drowning after his son was rushed to hospital while on a family holiday and was diagnosed with the condition.
Charlie shared a snap of his four-year-old son in a hospital bed and explained what happened to him in the caption. He wrote, “Hi all, I wanted to share a terrifying experience we had recently with my youngest son Jago, in the hope that if it helps just one person avoid a similar situation, it will be worth it”.
“We were on holiday enjoying a morning in the pool. Jago is a strong swimmer for his age and he was swimming under water but suddenly came up spluttering and coughing”.
“At no point was he left unattended, it was momentary, nothing seemed unusual for kids to experience. We got him out and he seemed fine and happy and was completely normal for the rest of the day”.
The 37-year-old continued, “At dinner he became very lethargic and went to sleep in my wife’s arms. After dinner he suddenly woke up and started projectile vomiting. We called a doctor immediately who initially diagnosed it as food poisoning and advised that we put Jago to bed in our hotel room and keep an eye on him”.
“Before the doctor left, I suddenly remembered Jago coughing in the pool that morning and I remembered reading about a condition called secondary drowning, so I relayed it to the doctor. After hearing this, his demeanour changed and he told us to go to A&E straight away”.
“During the hour long journey to hospital, Jago’s condition deteriorated and he seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. He was rushed through to have CT scans and X-Rays and to our absolute horror, we were told that he had water in his lungs and was minutes away from pneumonia”.
The Year 3000 singer went on to say, “Jago was diagnosed with secondary drowning. He spent the next three days in hospital and I’m so thankful for the amazing care he received. It was the worst thing we have ever experienced”.
“The scariest thing of all, is that had we not taken him to hospital when we did, the outcome could have been very different”.
“After doing a lot of research, secondary drawing is seemingly quite rare but even so, not talked about. It takes less than half a glass of inhaled water to drown”.
Charlie shared some of the signs of secondary drowning to look out for. “Symptoms can start as long as 72 hours after the event which can make them hard to diagnose. These include vomiting, laboured breathing and lethargy”.
“I truly hope no one ever has to experience this but I hope to be able to raise some awareness of this frightening condition in case they do x”.
Fans of the singer rushed to the comments to share how glad they are that Jago was doing better after such a scary experience. One fan wrote, “Sent shivers down my spine reading this, thank you so much for sharing and raising awareness”.
“So sorry to hear that this happened to Jago and you all. Thanks for sharing and raising thus, I will definitely keep a check on any of these symptoms in my children too! X”, added a second follower.
Simpson and his wife Anna welcomed Jago into the world in February 2018. The couple are also parents to Arlo, who was born in 2015.
