Hi to all. This is a sad story but one that illustrates something we all should know about, especially if we or someone we care about has kids.
I was working late one night this week when a 30 something couple came in to pick up an order for the school the woman worked for. The woman was obviously hot and uncomfortable as they walked from the train station to us and she was carrying her high healed shoes in her hand. She mentioned they were the wrong shoes to be wearing but they had just been to a meeting in the city with a lawyer, I later found out it was a medical lawyer. The order they were to pick up was 2 large cartons so I suggested it might be better if I drop the couple back up to the station with their cartons. The woman was grateful, I warned though that my car was messy as I had just that weekend taken my son camping.
The woman asked me how old my son was, to which I replied 10. She then said the following "you are so lucky, we had a 10 year old son but we recently lost him." As you can imagine, I was a little shocked but I felt this woman wanted to talk about it so I asked her what happened.
These poor, courageous people had lost their 10 year old son 4 months ago to a condition called S.A.D.S. and were in my factory trying to function the best way they could while still in shock and in obvious deep emotional pain. Their poor little fella had shown a few symptoms the afternoon before, they took him to the doctors but the doctor didn't pick up what it was so he sent them home, their boy cooked them dinner on his own BBQ, played with some Lego and Mechano before he fell asleep never to wake again, leaving his 5 year old sister with no big brother and his parents with only memories of there no 1 son. He was a keen PW80 rider which he used to ride around their property, the same bike my little guy rides.
As I mention in the title of this post, for me this was also a Reality Check and also a reminder of how lucky we are. I dropped the couple to the station and in the drive the woman said to me that what I was calling mess in my car, my boys helmet and scattered camping gear, she would now call memories!
I don't mean to bring people down with this post but now I am aware of this condition I feel all parents should be aware of it. While I felt deeply moved by this experience, I am grateful this experience has made me aware of this condition. It is called S.A.D.S. Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome.
The symptoms these people experienced were that their boy for a short while couldn't speak properly and couldn't stand up, he then came good not long after as if nothing had happened. Please let people know about this condition. More information is at these links,
http://www.sads.org.au/index.htmlhttp://www.sads.org.au/warning_signs.html
