A couple are demanding answers after their nine-year-old son died without warning.

Struggling to cope with what must be every parent’s nightmare, Mark and Ann Ward are trying to understand what led to young Michael’s death when just hours earlier he had been playing happily with friends.

He started coughing and, when it grew progressively worse, his parents dialled 999 but were still not overly concerned.

Hours later he was dead.

Michael was, as far as everybody knew, a healthy nine-year-old.

He spent the evening of Saturday, January 31, playing outside but started coughing when he returned to the family home in Hayward Avenue, Strood.

Initially his parents Mark and Ann did not think anything of it, but the coughing got worse and woke them during the night.

Mark said: “His breathing was shallow and there was a sort of gurgling noise in his chest so I called 999. He said he felt fine and even walked out to the ambulance.”

Ann, 33, went with Michael to Medway Maritime Hospital while Mark stayed with their daughters Victoria, seven, and Charlotte, five.

What happened next is still being investigated but at around 5am, Michael was given a general anaesthetic – Mark believes to put a tube down his son’s throat to help him breathe – which knocked him out. But then his heart stopped.

Michael had been given a general anaesthetic before, when he had his appendix out last year.

Ann said: “Suddenly people started to panic. I knew something was wrong. I was crying, I screamed ‘is my son going to be ok?’ and they said ‘we don’t know’.”

For 50 minutes staff tried to resuscitate him, but Michael was gone.

Mark, 40, said: “Ann was on the phone screaming, I couldn’t understand a word she was saying.

"I went down to the hospital not realising how serious it was and one of the nurses just grabbed me. Everyone, all the staff, were crying. The doctor hugged me and didn’t want to let go.

“Then I saw him dead, and it blew me to pieces.”

Michael was loved by all who knew him. He was top of his class at Gordon Junior School in Strood, and enjoyed maths and literacy.

Mark, a builder, added: “He did as he was told, he made his bed in the morning and sorted out his own breakfast. He looked after his sisters, and just wanted to do everything right.

“He was carrying an old soul on his young shoulders. He thought about having his own family when he grew up and had this calmness about him which made other people feel relaxed.

“He was the boy all the teachers wanted on school trips and he taught me how to be a more patient person.”

Michael wanted to be an inventor and his favourite things were karate, Lego and the Minecraft video game, but he was always modest in what he asked for.

His last Christmas list consisted solely of a Horrid Henry DVD and ‘a bit of Lego’.

“If he wanted something expensive, he would never ask us outright, he would see if he could get it cheaper on Ebay.”

He also loved to draw and Ann, originally from Thailand, said: “He had such a vivid imagination, he liked superheroes and tigers were his favourite animal so he focused a lot around those.”

The family have been in complete shock since but touched by the support from friends, family, neighbours and all those who knew their son.

Mark said: “It’s like we’re in a dream. You wake up in the morning feeling all right and then it just hits you and you realise you’ll never see his smile again.

“Obviously the girls were devastated. They went to bed as normal, and when they woke up the next morning we had to tell them Michael was never coming home.

"I’m a broken man. I’ve got so many questions; I need to know what happened to my son" - Mark Ward

“I’m a broken man. I’ve got so many questions; I need to know what happened to my son.”

The results of a post mortem are expected in four to 12 weeks.

A funeral is being held on Tuesday, March 3, at St Nicholas’ Church in Strood High Street at 11.15am.

A Buddhist ceremony will be held at the crematorium, to honour both sides of the family.

Arrangements are still being made but all are welcome to attend.

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