The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

A TEN-year-old boy who unexpectedly died in his father’s arms at Montague Beach on Wednesday had a serious heart condition, autism and suffered a frightening health episode just days before his collapse.

Sidney Bain Jr’s paternal grandmother, Marguerite Taylor, said Sidney was born with a heart condition, underwent his first heart surgery at five and was expected to need another operation in the future.

His condition frequently kept him out of school, and last Saturday he spent hours at hospital after developing stomach pain and a bad cough, vomiting, shaking and turning blue in the hands.

Ms Taylor said Sidney was given oxygen and medication before being discharged.

Days later, his father took him to Montague Beach, one of the boy’s favourite places. He never went into the water and did not drown, Ms Taylor stressed, adding that he was on the shoreline when he began complaining of stomach pain.

His father, 37, picked him up and tried to get him to the car before realising his son appeared to be losing oxygen.

“He laid him down, and he started to, you know, do the resuscitation,” Ms Taylor said, adding that bystanders also tried to help.

“But I think by then it was too late. I think he had gone from the stomach start, and his daddy noticed that he was losing oxygen. I think that was it for him right there.”

Ms Taylor said her son and grandson regularly went to the beach together.

“God take him to the place where he loved to be so much, because he loved the beach,” she said. “He always wanted to go to the beach.”

She said her son is heartbroken by the death of his only child, whom she described as his world and the person who made his life complete.

The family had already endured another health scare days earlier.

Ms Taylor said her son called her last Saturday night to say Sidney had a bad cough and stomach pain. The boy went to the bathroom to vomit before he began shaking.

“He grabbed him, and he laid him down,” she said of her son’s reaction.

“When he looked, his hands had already started to turn blue.”

Sidney’s father tried to revive him until an ambulance arrived. Ms Taylor said the boy was subsequently given oxygen and medication at hospital before being sent home.

Two days before his death, Sidney visited his grandmother.

Ms Taylor said she became concerned when she saw that his face was swollen following the earlier health episode. Although her son told her medication had reduced some of the swelling, she questioned why Sidney had been released from hospital.

She described him as a “sickly boy” whose health problems severely affected his ability to function.

Despite those problems, Sidney wanted to spend time with his grandmother shortly before his death.

“He spent like an hour and a half with me because he wanted to come to see his grandmother; you know they like their ice cream,” Ms Taylor said.

Before he left, she said she suddenly felt compelled to hold him.

She hugged him, kissed him on the forehead and told him: “Grammy loves you.”

Ms Taylor said she had a strange feeling that something was going to happen.

Sidney was born on July 19 and attended Hampton Academy.

His family described him as a quiet, reserved and wonderful child.