A 15-YEAR-OLD boy has died after falling ill with the flu and a chest infection.
The budding rapper from Finglas, Dublin, is the latest death during a winter of deadly flu virus.
Sean Hughes died in Dublin’s Temple Street Hospital over the weekend after initially complaining of sickness last Wednesday.
His mother, Karen, took him to his GP where he was prescribed antibiotics.
However, after returning home his condition deteriorated and he was rushed to hospital late on Thursday.
Mum, Karen, told the Irish Sun: “It was a very bad chest infection to start off with and there were complications after that.”
“He went into the hospital. He had the chest infection a few days before that. He just passed away after a sudden illness. It would be unfair to say what it was because we don’t know what it is.”
Tributes have been pouring in for Sean, a budding musician who won a string of music awards and was once given the honour of being chosen to show President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina around his school.
Hundreds of relatives, friends and locals called to the family home yesterday to pay their respects, while Finglas Youth Centre has been turned into a shrine.
Sean’s father Joe said: “I’m going to be giving his CDs out over the next few days. He made them. Lil’ Red was his name. He was into his music and his clothes.
“It’s had such a big impact on the whole neighbourhood. Since we got Sean home, that door hasn’t stopped. All the youngsters have come in to pay their respects.
“He had a wide, wide, wide circle of friends. He loved his music, loved his clothes, no one ever had a bad word to say about him.”
Karen added: “He was a larger-than-life young man, way ahead of his years.
“He had every respect for man, woman and child. He had such a caring nature.
“No matter who he met he had an impact on them. Whoever they were. There are flowers outside the house. There is tributes on the wall to Sean in the local youth club. All his pictures and messages left from people to him.”
Joe also revealed his son was a good Samaritan who helped the elderly and bullying victims.
He said: “There’s strangers coming up here telling us how he touched them.
“One woman who he helped carry her shopping. Another woman who he cheered up after she lost her husband, he helped her cope with her loss.
“And there was another child who he stopped being bullied, he used to walk him home. And Sean never told us any of these things. People are just coming to us now.”
Joe added: “He was a bit of a worrier, a worrier about other people. Really thoughtful.”
A group of Sean’s friends and family joined together at a local park lat night where they lit Chinese lanterns and sang some of Sean’s favourite songs.
Sean’s death is another in a winter rife with flu deaths as a new virus known as Aussie flu continues to affect people all over Britain and Ireland.
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