Sammy and John Knowles shared their story with both the BBC and the local outlet Yorkshire Live, just days after their only child Jaxon died in the hospital on Feb. 17 of meningococcal disease.
Jaxon was the couple's "miracle baby," Sammy told Yorkshire Live, as he was their "last chance of having kids" following seven years of trying and five rounds of IVF ahead of his eventual July 2020 birth in Sheffield, England. The couple had three miscarriages and "had almost given up" before welcoming Jaxon, the mother added to the BBC.
"We'd wanted him for so long, we never thought we could do enough for him," Sammy told the outlet. "Every birthday was over the top — petting zoos, circus rides — we went to Lapland at Christmas."
The Knowles family's lives changed forever after they returned from a weekend trip to Blackpool, England, on Feb. 16. At the time, the family noticed that their son began to complain about the area "under his arm" hurting and having a "tummy ache," Sammy and John told both outlets.
"When we got home around 6 p.m. on Sunday, as I lifted him out of the car he kept asking to sleep in 'mummy's bed' — which he always did when he was ill," Sammy told Yorkshire Live of Jaxon. "He often got chest infections, so it was nothing new. I gave him some Calpol, which usually sorts out illnesses and did keep his temperature down."
After staying up with her son until 2 a.m., Sammy woke back up three hours later and spotted a rash while checking her son's temperature, she told the outlet. Though she first thought it could have been chicken pox, she "immediately saw how bad it was" upon turning on a lamp, per Yorkshire Live.
The rash, she told the BBC, looked like "burst veins," and her son soon "threw up and his mouth started swelling up." The couple then called emergency services, and officials asked them to put Jaxon on the floor and count his breaths.
"It felt like an eternity had passed until emergency responders arrived, then the ambulance crews. We were not told anything about it being meningitis until we were in the ambulance, where we were told 15 nurses and doctors were waiting in the ICU of Rotherham Hospital," Jaxon's mom told Yorkshire Live. "I was in shock, as I had not heard anything about meningitis for years."
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