Grieving parents seek compulsory checks at birth

The parents of an eight-year-old boy who died while playing football a year ago are using the first anniversary of his death to call for compulsory heartbeat testing of new-born babies. 

Monia and Nick Payne, of Westerham Road, Sittingbourne, believe their son Adam may have had an irregular heartbeat which would have been detected by an ECG check and treatment given to prevent the condition being fatal. 

He collapsed at the town’s Swallows Leisure Centre on January 25 last year while playing five-a-side football and was pronounced dead two hours later at Medway Maritime Hospital. 

Mrs Payne said: “Since Adam’s death we have had our hearts checked – and both my other son Liam, who is now six, and I do have irregular heartbeats, so it could be hereditary. 

“We are convinced Adam could still be here if an ECG test on his heart had been taken soon after he was born." 

Pathologist David Rouse, who conducted a post-mortem examination, said at the inquest into Adam’s death that any irregular heartbeat would not have been discovered during his investigation. 

But he suggested a condition affecting electrical impulses may have been the probable cause of his death. 

A verdict of natural death from unascertained causes was recorded. 

Mrs Payne added: “We are obviously very worried about what may happen to Liam and will not allow him to do any very strenuous exercise.”  Liam goes to The Oaks infants school and Adam went to Mintherne Junior School. 

The first anniversary of Adam’s death would be “a day of quiet-reflection on the injustice we still feel about losing our son in such a way.” 

The couple are keep to publicise the work of a charity called CRY which stands for Cardiac Risk in the Young.  It is also campaigning for frequent ECG heartbeat testing.