Amie suffers a relapse in hospital

AFTER THE MASSACRE

PETER VICTOR

Stories of individual tragedy continued to emerged yesterday from the horror of the Dunblane massacre.

Trainee teacher Alison Curry was chatting outside the gates of Dunblane Primary after dropping off five-year-old Ryan when she heard gunshots ring out on Wednesday. She dashed through the school and was one of the first to arrive at the scene of devastation in the gymnasium. She found her son, alive, lying among the dead and injured.

Yesterday, as news of her appalling ordeal was released, she maintained a bedside vigil as Ryan lies critically injured in hospital. Ryan, who uses the surname Liddell, suffered multiple bullet wounds and was described as "stable" in Glasgow's Yorkhill hospital yesterday.

A neighbour of his mother's said: "We've only seen her briefly because she has been at Ryan's side nearly all the time. I don't know what she saw in that school but she's really shocked. She wasn't saying much and her thoughts were elsewhere."

Concern grew yesterday for five-year-old Amie Adam who suffered a relapse at Glasgow's Yorkhill Hospital. Amie whose thigh was shattered by a bullet in the attack on Wednesday, collapsed yesterday lunchtime. Last night she was critically ill on a life-support machine.

Doctors would only release general medical details about Amie's condition. Medical director Dr Alister Miller said: "She is again seriously ill and has been returned to the intensive-care unit. This is disappointing after she had made such excellent progress after her initial treatment."

Dr Miller said that Amie was having some routine attention to the plaster on her leg when she became unwell. He said: "Her colour changed and she was getting rather breathless so now she is receiving support with her breathing on a ventilator."

Amie underwent emergency surgery on her leg at Yorkhill on Wednesday night after the shooting. On Thursday she was moved out of intensive care to an orthopaedic ward and was said to be making good progress.

It is understood that bone marrow seeping into the child's bloodstream may have caused yesterday's relapse.

It emerged also that the sister of murdered teacher Gwen Mayor learnt of the tragedy after she, also a teacher, had helped her own pupils make chocolates for Mother's Day.

Joan Bedford, a mother of three, saw the news of the Dunblane disaster on television when she returned to the staff room for her break. Last night she, her husband and their children were in Scotland comforting Gwen's husband, Rodney.

Kath North, a pensioner who visited her granddaughter Sophie in Dunblane just days ago, returned home to Hertfordshire and then heard that the five-year-old had been one of the victims. Yesterday Mrs North, 75, was being comforted by her daughter in Middlesbrough.

Mrs North, of Hitchin, spent last week visiting Sophie and her father in Dunblane. Sophie's mother died from cancer two years ago.

The elderly man who plays Santa Claus for the children of Dunblane said yesterday: "Christmas is never going to be the same in Dunblane."

Tom Allan, 65, of the Dunblane Community Council, told how last Christmas five-year-old Kevin Hasell, who died in the massacre, sat on his knee at a party at the Hillside Playgroup in Dunblane. "Kevin sticks in my mind in particular.

"I remember him because he went to the playgroup party for three Christmases on the trot. He was one of the shy ones and I used to make a particular effort to speak with him.

"I asked him what he would want for Christmas that year. He said, in a little voice: `Whatever you could manage please'."

Mr Allan said he also recalled another victim, five-year-old Victoria Clydesdale, because she had visited a charity grotto in the high street.

"She sat on my knee and I remember that she said to me she did not mind at all what she got as long as her brothers and sisters got all the presents they wanted ... She was a beautiful little girl, a cheery little soul and very outgoing."

Mr Allan, who has been on the community council for four years, said his wish was now to make Dunblane a better place for future children. He hoped cash could be found for a swimming pool and possibly a new community centre.

At the moment he could not bear to think about next Christmas, but his Santa Claus outfit would be waiting if he was called for.