Axel Rutherford died in hospital after inhaling a household pin. Photo / GoFundMe
Axel Rutherford died in hospital after inhaling a household pin. Photo / GoFundMe
Ayla Rutherford was getting her eldest son's birthday cake ready when she stopped to have a shower – and her life changed forever.
Her boys had been running around "being crazy kids" and, when her husband woke up on January 9, she decided to go have a shower after a busy morning preparing.
Rutherford said all of a sudden she heard her family screaming downstairs that something was wrong with her four-year-old son Axel.
"I came downstairs to see my husband doing the Heimlich on Axel," she posted on GoFundMe.
The US mum said she watched as her little boy went limp before paramedics arrived and rushed him to hospital.
"We waited for hours. It felt like days," she said.
"When finally around 4pm the doctor told us they found out Axel aspirated a tack. A thumb tack. Ones you hang pictures on the wall or posters.
"And it had punctured his right lung and blocked the other. They told us because he was without oxygen for more than 20 minutes that he would be brain dead."
The family's prayers were answered in hospital when, after the third day and as they were preparing to say goodbye, Axel twitched and tried to gasp for air.
"So they could not declare him brain dead," Rutherford said.
"I thank god for the extra days to be with him even though he couldn't do anything."
A household pin punctured Axel's right lung and blocked the other. File photo / Immo Wegmann, Unsplash
But days later the family got a call from a doctor to say that new tests showed Axel was brain dead.
"Our baby was gone, he was only breathing because of life support," she said.
"Daddy and I held our baby one last time."
Rutherford said she wanted to raise awareness for other parents to remove pins from their homes.
"A thumb tack did so much damage to his little body," she said.
"I want anyone – a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or friend to remove tacks. There are other ways to hold things up that won't hurt or kill a child.
"I just want to save other babies or children and their parents from this pain.
