'Riley would still be here if we'd been told his spleen was missing'

13-YEAR-OLD HAD BEEN A 'PERFECTLY NORMAL, HAPPY KID' UNTIL THE DAY HE DIED

- By JOEL MOORE

THE family of a 13-year-old Nottinghamshire boy only found out he had no spleen months after it caused his sudden death.

On October 9, Riley MacDonald woke up for school his usual energetic self, but by the end of the day he was taking his final breaths in a hospital bed.

The Toton boy, a keen footballer and kickboxer, had caught pneumonia, which sent him into septic shock and caused a cardiac arrest.

The speed of his decline was due to him not having a spleen, an organ which helps the body fight infection.

"It explained why it was so fast. The infection had just taken over," said his mum Sally Martin.

"It was such a huge shock because there was no reason to believe that was the case.

"He'd been fine. He'd been a perfectly normal and happy kid up until the day he died."

The 42-year-old said her son woke up as normal but was sick on the way to school.

"I said he should go to bed. He had flu-like symptoms and slept most of the day," she recalled.