A mum knew something was wrong during her son's MRI scan when the nurse left the room.
Adam Simpson was taken to Alder Hey by his mum, Emma, and dad, Peter, one morning after days of being unwell. The then-seven-year-old, who had not long returned from Wembley after watching Liverpool beat Man City 3-2, was "rushed" through A&E on April 27, 2022, when 111 put two symptoms together.
She told the ECHO: "He was just complaining of a sore foot but we just thought he twisted his ankle. He then couldn't get his temperature down but chicken pox was going around the school at the time so we thought it was that.
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"Then after a few nights, we rang 111 and they put the two together and they told us to go into Alder Hey. We got there and thought we would be there for ages but as soon as we came out of triage they rushed us through."
After a number of scans at the children's hospital, Adam was told he was suffering from a bone infection, osteomyelitis, in his right shin which caused the temperature and pain in his right foot. The 44-year-old mum-of-two continued: "They had to drill a hole in his shin then fill it with cement because the bone was just hollow.
"He was in for two weeks and had to sleep in a bed in the living room. He's just finished physio and he's back playing football now but he's going to be back and forth between hospital until he's 18 because it can affect his growth."
Emma, a civil servant from Bootle, said she knew something was wrong when the nurse overseeing Adam's MRI scan last year left for a second opinion. She said: "When they said they needed a second opinion on an MRI scan my heart just dropped then they brought two specialists back and they were talking.
"I was trying to stay calm but I was by myself. I'd told my husband to go to work because I thought it was just going to be a check-up more than anything. It went from us thinking he had chicken pox and a sore foot to thinking he might have sepsis."
But now the eight-year-old is back playing football and healthy, Emma praised the team at Alder Hey. Alder Hey are just amazing. No matter what time of the night, the surgeon was just there, nothing was too much trouble for him."
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