‘Medics sent McKenzie home with suspected pneumonia – five days later our boy was dead’

A heartbroken mother is demanding to know why her previously healthy 19-year-old son died five days after being discharged from hospital with suspected pneumonia.

Instead of being out in the sunshine doing the job he loved, scaffolder McKenzie Ferns was last week buried by his devastated family.

Until Thursday’s funeral, his mother, Charlene, 37, who runs a popular delicatessen near the family home in Holytown, Lanarkshire, had been visiting her eldest son almost every day as he lay in a funeral home, spending hours in a silence ­broken only by her sobs.

She said: “In my worst nightmares I never dreamed that I’d be sitting holding McKenzie’s hand in a funeral parlour, telling him all the things I will never get the chance to tell him because he has been so cruelly taken from us.

“How can any healthy 19-year-old go into a hospital with a cough in this day and age and end up dead? I simply cannot get my head or my heart around what has happened.”

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Charlene says McKenzie was full of life, planning for his future after successfully finishing his scaffolding exams when he went to hospital last month with what doctors initially thought was a bit of a cough and chest infection. Five days after he was discharged from Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, he was dead.

Charlene said: “His GP prescribed antibiotics, but McKenzie was coughing and struggling to breathe so we took him to A&E at Hairmyres on March 8. He’d been coming home from work and going straight to bed after his shower, so we knew he hadn’t been feeling well. After a night and day waiting for a bed, he was moved to a ward and then the respiratory unit.

“We’d be up seeing him all the time, and although he was linked to drips and the medical teams had put him on oxygen, as the days passed there was no real improvement.”

McKenzie’s dad, Mark, 39, said: “We expected him to respond quickly once he was in the respiratory ward. But when we saw how hard he was struggling to breathe, we were terrified. His whole body was shaking. It was awful watching him desperately trying to get a breath.

“We kept asking questions because we were so concerned, but we never got a straight answer. He had been placed in the same ward where his grandfather had died, and that was upsetting him and making him anxious. Because of that, one of the night shift nurses actually said he was just being a ‘silly boy’. We were disgusted.”

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McKenzie’s family had to watch helplessly as medical teams headed by Hairmyres respiratory lead consultant Dr Pratheega Mahendra tried test after test but could not come up with answers.

Charlene said: “They had him on drips. They medicated him with morphine, which can make breathing more difficult. McKenzie was given different antibiotics and all kinds of painkillers. None seemed to make him any better. The medical teams kept testing his oxygen levels which looked good with high readings, but despite that he was still struggling to breathe.

“They were asking if he had been vaping, or if he had been addicted to something which would explain why his body was shaking. But none of that was the case. McKenzie was getting scared because he knew he wasn’t ­getting any better.

“We had to sit there and watch as he deteriorated in front of us, and nobody seemed to know why this was happening.”

The family were stunned when they were told McKenzie was being sent home. Charlene said: “We were told that following a CT scan he had improved enough to get home. McKenzie was told he could go home on the March 17 without any prescriptions or discharge letter.

“I called the hospital to ask why and was told that they had decided he was well enough. I queried why there was no letter or prescription. I was told he couldn’t have needed it and a letter would go to his GP.

“Five days later (March 22), McKenzie took his last breath.”

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Charlene was in floods of tears as she described her boy’s last moments. She said: “The night before McKenzie died, he went to his auntie Karen’s and the two of them watched their favourite films together. Later on that night, McKenzie was feeling so awful, he asked his auntie to come and give him a cuddle as he lay in bed.

“His auntie Karen put on some music that sounded like waves on the beach to see if that would relax him, and the both of them actually fell asleep.

“Karen said something changed in McKenzie’s breathing and it woke her suddenly.

“It was my boy, taking his last breath.

“Karen tried everything she could, but McKenzie was gone, and all our hearts are broken into a million pieces.”

The family have been left struggling to get answers. Charlene called Hairmyres and spoke to ­Dr Mahendra.

She said: “I told her my boy was dead. Dr Mahendra seemed shocked. I’m tormented. It’s been hard enough trying to accept our son is dead, but trying to get the truth about what happened seems almost impossible.

“McKenzie was my firstborn, the eldest of our three kids. Our boy was so full of life. Everyone who met him loved him. He was always ­smiling and happy to help others. Nothing was too much trouble for McKenzie.

“He was so proud of just completing his scaffolding exams.

“Like everything McKenzie did, he wanted to be the best. McKenzie was always so healthy. He was solid as a rock. He had a bout of pneumonia which sent him into hospital a couple of years ago, but he was fine until he developed that recent cough.

“None of this makes any sense. All our lives have changed for ever because McKenzie is gone. We need answers.”

The family’s MSP, Monica Lennon, said: “I am deeply saddened by the tragic loss of McKenzie, a young man whose life was cut far too short.

“Being from Blantyre, I’ve known the Ferns family over many years, and I extend my sincere condolences to all of McKenzie’s loved ones and friends at this difficult time.

“It is vital they get the answers and support they need.”

NHS Lanarkshire’s director of acute services, Russell Coulthard, said: “Although we are unable to comment on the details of this individual case just now, our thoughts and ­sympathies are with the family at this tragic time.

“NHS Lanarkshire will undertake a review of these events. We will contact McKenzie’s family as part of this.”