'He's not suffering anymore': Mum's heartbreak as baby dies a year after brain injury
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT. The mother of a baby boy who died a year after he suffered a serious brain injury says she’s relieved her son is no longer in pain.
The homicide squad is now investigating if baby Nathaniel’s death is connected with injuries he suffered 12 months ago.
His mum wants people to see how strong Nathaniel was, with a picture of her baby boy just hours before the little fighter lost his battle on Sunday night.
“When he did go, he was surrounded by loved ones, and it was nice to know that he’s not suffering any more,” his mother Erica Lawrence told 7News.
“As much as it’s hard, it’s nice to know he’s not suffering anymore.”
At just six weeks old, Nathaniel suffered a catastrophic brain injury while being cared for by his father in Narrogin.
He spent months in hospital before being allowed to go home.
His 25-year-old father was charged with causing him grievous bodily harm.
Homicide detectives are now looking into whether those injuries led to Nathaniel’s death.
In August, just a few weeks before Nathaniel turned one, he laughed for the first and only time.
“The sounds he’d make was his way of talking,” Nathaniel’s great aunt Cheyenne Taylor said.
“But most of all, I’m really going to miss him. He brought so much joy.”
In the last few weeks of his life, as Nathaniel’s seizures got progressively worse, he made several trips to hospital.
But late last week, doctors told his mum to take him home and make him comfortable.
It gave them a chance to take him to the beach for the first time the day he died.
“He was always full of smiles, even though he endured so much,” his mother said.
The family has set up a Go Fund Me page to help her lay her little boy to rest.
