GAZING over the cot of their beloved daughter, Jason Watkins and Clara Francis were faced with a scene no parent should ever have to witness.
On New Year’s Day 2011, the Line of Duty star and his wife awoke to find two-year-old Maude had died suddenly in her sleep, just a day after being returned home from hospital.
Actor Jason Watkins and Clara Francis have opened up about the devastating loss of their daughterRex
Maude tragically died on New Year’s Day 2011 aged two after what seemed like a chest infectionRex
Her life had been cut short after doctors assumed she simply had a chest infection – they had missed the signs that Maude had sepsis.
The heartbroken couple are now sharing their story in a new moving ITV documentary, Jason and Clara: In Memory of Maudie.
In the film, a distraught Jason, 60, candidly describes the devastating moment their older daughter Bessie found Maude.
He says: “Bessie came in and said ‘I can’t wake Maude. And so I went into her room and I said her on the cot and she was lying flat.
“And there was a trickle of blood that had dried in her mouth so I knew she died straight away. I felt fate had been cruel and we had been smashed around in a storm. That’s how it felt.”
Clara adds: “How can you go to sleep one night and have a child who’s got a bad cold and croup and then wake up the next morning and your child is dead?”
Hospital nightmare
Their nightmare began at the end of 2010 when Maude had what seemed like a chest infection.
After she was taken to A&E, doctors sent her home with some steroids and antibiotics.
By the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, Maude’s condition dramatically worsened, which terrified her parents.
Jason explains: “She was floppy and pale. And her eyes were rolling into her head. This wasn’t anything we were expecting at all. We were terrified so we drove back to the hospital.
“I ran into triage and they said it’s croup. The paediatric doctor came in and said, ‘I think she’s doing better. Her temperature is falling.’ We are in the world of things should be okay.”
Maude was discharged again for the second time, but tragically died the next day, aged just two-and-a-half.
The couple tearfully open up about their memories of their daughterRex
Clara decided to keep Maude’s tiny shoes after going through her belongingsRex
In the documentary, the couple emotionally talk about their memories of their daughter and the impact she had on their lives.
Jason says: “My memories of Maude are that she was a happy child and very wise and very centred. It’s strange because she was only two-and-a-half.
“She used to play hide and seek. She used to love hide and seek.”
Clara adds: “She was just joyful. A really joyful child and I just feel so sad that I’ll never see her grow up.”
Taking the camera into a shed converted to a studio, Clara, who is also an actress and a fashion designer, says: “When Maude died, I remember sitting here and not being able to do anything and just being so consumed with grief that I remember crying.
“And I remember a puddle – a proper puddle of tears on the table.”
In the days following her death, the couple’s friend Emma offered to pack up Maude’s belongings in two bags to store in her loft as it was too painful for them to see.
After 11 years of agony, the couple were finally reunited with her things in emotionally-charged scenes.
Clara says: “I’m quite unsentimental about things but weirdly, as time has gone on, those things have taken on a value to me.
“Because they’ve been there for so long, they’ve taken on this significance and now I feel compelled to go through them.”
‘Answers’
Jason and Clara say they hoped to find answers through the inquestRex
Her parents describe her as a joyful child in the emotional documentaryRex
Months after their devastating loss, the couple were faced with the inquest into Maude’s death and hoped they could get answers through the process.
Jason says: “We wanted to know why it had happened and was there a mistake because we didn’t know anything then.”
The inquest revealed that Maude had died from sepsis, a condition which affects 250,000 people a year in the UK and kills 52,000, according to the Sepsis Trust.
Each year, sepsis claims the lives of 1,000 children.
In the film, Jason says: “Sepsis wasn’t mentioned at all in the medical journey of Maude. It was only subsequently that you realise that inevitably that’s what it was.
“At that time it was not on the list of possible things. It was missed. There’s a bit of anger there obviously.”
Now, the couple are on a mission to educate more people about the condition, which can be extremely difficult to spot and diagnose.
KNOW THE SIGNS
An ADULT or OLDER child has any of these symptoms of sepsis:
Acting confused, slurred speech or not making sense
Blue, pale or blotchy skin, lips or tongue – on brown or black skin, blueness may be easier to see on the lips, tongue or gums, under the nails or around the eyes
A rash that does not fade when you roll a glass over it, the same as meningitis
Difficulty breathing, breathlessness or breathing very fast
They may not have all these symptoms.
Source: NHS
For Jason, it is a coping mechanism that helps him deal with the loss of his beloved Maude.
“I knew irrationally, I’m doing this because if I crack it and no more children die, which is ridiculous because sadly they will, and that I fully understand the condition of sepsis, Maude will come back into the room,” he explains.
“That’s irrational but that will never stop.”
In the film, Jason visits health experts at King’s College Hospital in London, who have been on the frontline in the battle to help people recognise the signs of sepsis, which has often been described as a silent killer.
He meets Professor Akash Depp whose own mother died from the condition in India and shares an emotional moment of grief with him.
The actor witnesses a training session where a team of health professionals are taught to pick up on the signs of sepsis.
It’s a bittersweet experience for him as he knows not every NHS professional will benefit from these sessions.
Jason says: “My frustration is that it’s not available to everybody and in three years’ time a parent may not have heard of it – just like myself.”
Support
GettyThe couple say they think about Maude every day[/caption]
They shared Maude’s story to help other parents going through a similar situationRex
For Jason and Clara, a single day doesn’t go by without thinking about Maude.
They now have a “special” place they go to keep her memory alive – a memorial bench that reads: “Our Maude; always with us – and always here.”
Soon after she passed away, Clara got a tattoo of her name on her arm to keep her close.
Determined to have another child, they welcomed their son Gilbert, who Jason believes was their “saviour”.
They are now part of a local support group called SLOW – Surviving the Loss of Your World, run by bereaved parents.
Clara has now been trained to run the sessions and says: “I want to be somebody that can offer hope to people and other bereaved parents.”
During their meetings, other parents share their loss with photos and encouraging stories about their departed loved ones.
As part of their healing process, they also visit a therapist who helps them to deal with the trauma of their harrowing experience.
Jason has also connected with two fathers, Marshall and Andy, who also lost their daughters to sepsis.
The decision to tell Maude’s story in the documentary was not one the couple took lightly but felt was necessary.
Clara explains: “It’s about breaking down the taboo of child loss. It’s so grim and unspeakable that people don’t know what to say, people don’t know how to act around you.
“But also, I want to talk about her and people will know that she was here.”
Jason and Clara: In Memory of Maudie airs on ITV1 on Thursday March 30 at 9pm
BBCJason Watkins and Thandiwe Newton in Line of Duty[/caption] Read More