Brixham mum's legal fight after son developed eating disorder from drinking infected water
Watch Sam Blackledge's report on how Jen's son was affected by cryptosporidiosis.
A mother from Brixham whose nine-year-old son has developed a serious eating disorder following last year's cryptosporidium crisis is taking legal action against South West Water.Today marks one year since the bacteria was confirmed to have entered the town's water system, causing weeks of disruption and a public health crisis.
Hundreds of people became ill, and the number affected could turn out to be much higher than first thought.
'He hasn't had a meal since before 7 May last year'
Speaking to ITV News West Country, Jen Watts says her son began showing signs of the illness before the outbreak was confirmed.
"This time last year, on May 7th, my little boy started to become unwell," she said.
"Come 13 May, he'd basically not eaten or drunk hardly anything.
"I was getting very concerned and I didn't have an explanation. So I took him to the hospital, and they sent us home, and then that night the news broke about the water situation with the cryptosporidium.
"I took him back to A&E - he was very, very poorly. He lost a huge amount of weight. He wasn't eating or drinking, had diarrhoea; very bad reflux; inability to swallow.
"We weren't ultimately allowed out of the hospital until he had reluctantly agreed to tolerate some meal replacement drinks. A year on and he's still completely reliant upon them. He hasn't eaten a meal since before 7 May last year."
'It changed me, mummy' Jen's son, who is also autistic, was later diagnosed with a serious condition known as Arfid - which stands for Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder."As he himself says, it changed me, mummy," Jen said.
"It has been a horrendous year. Because he won't eat or drink or have his meal replacement drinks outside of the house, it's become very restrictive to what we can do and where we can go.
"He would never have developed Arfid if it wasn't for the Cryptosporidium. Everything that's happened in this last year is a direct result of the Cryptosporidium and South West Water's negligence.
"As a mum, it's heartbreaking to see your child go through this, to see them scared of eating and drinking - the things that as humans, we need to survive. And he's scared of doing that."
'It's unforgivable'
South West Water has apologised for the crisis and promised it will not happen again.
Jen says the company's approach last summer was "abysmal".
"Their negligence caused the situation in the first place," she said. "Their response at the time and their immediate denial of the situation was woeful.
"To have allowed something like this to cause the problems it's caused for my son, that are going to cause him problems for the rest of his life, is just, frankly, unforgivable."
'Life-changing impacts' Jen is now one of several people taking legal action against South West Water. She hopes for a settlement to pay for the help her son will need over the coming years.
Jatinder Paul, from Irwin Mitchell Solicitors, says he is currently representing more than 20 people in Brixham.
"A lot of our clients have had life-changing impacts from this cryptosporidium outbreak," he said.
"Some of them have gone on to experience conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, some have had psychological impacts.
"And in light of that, some of our clients now will require lifelong treatment or therapies to be able to move on from this."
In a statement, South West Water said: "We know the rare event in Brixham had a significant impact on local people and businesses and for that we are truly sorry. "While we cannot comment on live cases, in line with our customer promise we have settled all claims as soon as we have received the information needed from claimants. "We have settled over 97.5 per cent of all the claims that have been made relating to this incident and we are working to settle any remaining claims as quickly as possible."
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