Rushden boy's organs used to save others after choking death

A mother whose 10-year-old son died after choking on a sweet said his organs were used to save four lives.

Quintis Gouws, from Rushden, Northamptonshire, died in October after being taken to hospital.

Odette Green said the family was left "devastated" and remained in shock but added other people could now "have amazing lives because of him".

"There's no good reason for it to have happened and everyone is trying to cope in their own way," said Ms Green.

"You can only do what you can to help others out of this situation, since we can't bring him back."

An inquest has been opened into Quintis' death and will resume on 3 May.

Ms Green said her son had developed a "barking cough" around the time of his death that "worried him a lot".

"He never got sick, ever. He didn't get ill, so he was a bit confused about how he was feeling so when he was coughing he was panicking a little," she said.

"Unfortunately, he had a sweet he was eating, he had a moment of coughing and panicking which led to the sweet getting lodged in his throat causing him to choke and that was that - totally unexpected.

"It was one of those things. His cough could have passed and got better.

"But it wasn't the cough that killed him, it was just the combination of the coughing, the panicking and the sweet."

The family called an ambulance and his stepdad David Arnold was able to revive him temporarily.

"He brought his heart back to life," she said.

"Because of that, his organs were able to be donated. They took all of them to save four lives."

Three ambulances were sent and Quintis was taken to Kettering General Hospital. He was then transferred to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, where he was later pronounced dead, on 21 October.

She said she had taken her son to a GP about his cough and her advice to other parents is to get any symptoms checked.

"If you're ever worried or concerned about a cough, anything, however small it is, get it checked," she said.

"We took him to the GP immediately because we knew it wasn't right."

She said he was checked for viruses and the swabs "came back clear".

Ms Green said her son, who loved rugby, gymnastics and drawing, was "full of life".

"He didn't stop moving, you couldn't get him to sit down," she said. "At school, they saw him as the one that made them laugh all the time.

"He had a lot of people who loved him, all his teachers, school friends, his father, Riaan Gouws and his brother Beau and sister Matilda. If you met him once you'll remember him forever, he made a big impact.

"I'd love for everyone to know how amazing he was and for him not to be forgotten."

Two weeks before he died, his sister, Symphony, was born.

"He absolutely loved her," she said. "He called her Prawn, after looking at her scan photo looking like a prawn in the belly, so we're going to have to keep that one."

The singer and music teacher said the birth of her daughter, Symphony, had "stopped us from self-destructing".

"That's been really hard. How do you, with a broken heart, love and give that heart to another child, when it's two opposite ends of the spectrum? To have the beautiful life of Symphony but lose the beautiful life of Quintis.

"We're looking after her but she's looking after us, she's helping us through."

Since Quintis' death, an online donations page has raised about £5,000 for the Queen's Medical Centre, in Nottingham, while £1,000 was raised for the East Midlands Ambulance Service through fundraising events at The Rushden and Higham Rugby Club, where he played.

Source: NHS

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