Parents of two-year-old boy who died following medical episode in Bootle issues tribute

The parents of a two-year-old boy who tragically passed away following a medical episode in Bootle last week have issued a tribute.

Jude Gerrard was taken to hospital on Tuesday 14 January following the incident at Early Learners Day Nursery, on Hawthorne Road, at around 12.35pm.

He was sadly pronounced deceased shortly afterwards and his family continue to be supported by specially trained officers.

Jude's death is currently being treated as unexplained and inquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances of the incident.

A postmortem has been conducted, but the cause of death withheld pending further reports.  

Today, Tuesday 21 January, the parents issued the following tribute:

“This is our sweet baby boy, Jude Gerrard. We are absolutely heart broken and devastated beyond words by this shocking and unexpected loss of the love of our lives.

“I know all parents think this about their own children, but Jude truly was so incredibly special.

"Everybody who ever met him couldn’t help but instantly love him, and he had so much love for everyone too, even if he’d pretend to web you like Spider-Man or wrestle you like Hulk Hogan.

“Our lives will never be the same again, he really was too good to be true and we can’t believe he has been taken away from us like this, with something so preventable. He deserved so, so much more. We count ourselves so lucky we got to be his mummy and daddy for two and a half years, even though he should have had so much more time.

“Please respect our privacy as we process and grieve this unimaginable loss and the police continue to investigate what happened to our amazing, beautiful, caring boy, Judie.”