One feisty little rebel who keeps on fighting

IT was St Stephen’s Day 2012 and Susan Collins-Duggan had brought her son James to South Doc. James had an earache. Susan and her husband Con had brought their younger son Ben, too — he’d vomited earlier and his colour had turned grey. Susan thought he had a bug.

While the doctor was examining James, Ben vomited again. “She looked at Ben and said ‘this is the sicker baby’. She walked out of the room and asked for oxygen to be brought, and an ambulance to be ordered immediately. We were utterly surprised. I asked what she thought it was. She said she wasn’t sure,” recalled Susan.

Con returned to their Enniskeane home to make babysitting arrangements for James and his sister, Caoimhlín, 4. Susan — with Ben on oxygen in the ambulance — raced to CUH, where it was a “crazy” night in A&E.