A YOUNG mum has told how her partner died in her arms as she tried desperately to save his life.
Shona Campbell, 32, was woken up by her partner Lee Johnson, 39, struggling to breathe in the middle of the night.
She made frantic attempts to save him while their children, 14-month-old twins Drew and Tristan and four-year-old son Spencer, slept in the next room.
Electrician Lee, who also has an 11-year-old son Elliott from a previous relationship, died of pneumonia after telling Shona he felt like he was coming down with the flu.
Shona said: "I've told the children Daddy has gone to fix the stars in the sky so the angels can see.
"Spencer knows his Daddy is not coming home so he's been staying up late to say goodnight to him.
"Lee used to look after all the boys on his own on a Saturday, while I worked. They loved it because it was all the boys together. He adored them all."
Lee, who qualified as an electrician last year, had been building an extension for their growing family at their Westlands Road home in Sproatley.
Before going to bed that night, he had shown no signs of illness other than tiredness because he was working on the house extension as well as his day job as a street electrician with East Riding Council.
The day before he died on August 29, had been a normal day and he and Shona, a hairdresser at Paul's Barber Shop in Hornsea, spent it in Leeds choosing furnishings for the new build.
As they got into bed that night, Lee complained he felt "shivery" and said to Shona "I hope I don't get the flu again". At 2.30am, Shona woke to hear Lee's hoarse breathing and he had lost consciousness.
Shona dialled 999 and eased him onto their bedroom floor, while the operator guided her through CPR in a frantic attempt to keep Lee alive.
The ambulance arrived but despite paramedics battling to resuscitate Lee for half-an-hour, they could not save him. It is thought because his immune system was weak, his heart had to work harder, causing cardiomegaly – a swelling of the heart chambers – and ultimately, his cardiac arrest. Post-mortem results showed Lee had died from left-sided bronchial pneumonia.
"We all assumed he'd had a huge heart attack or aneurysm but to find out it was something that could have been treated if we'd known makes it harder," said Shona.
"No one can understand it because he was so fit and healthy. There was not one single symptom."
Lee was the youngest of seven children and is survived by his parents Joan and Stuart, his sisters Shirley, Sandra and Susan and his brothers Paul, Gary and Michael.
Shona hopes to hold a party in his memory to mark what would have been Lee's 40th birthday.
She said: "Lee was always smiling, always happy and up for a laugh. He loved his boys so much.
"He was very loving to me and tried his best to be understanding with my erratic moods because of the hectic life we had with the kids. But he was lovely.
"We were creating a family home together, he had worked so hard on it. I will finish it and decorate it the way we had decided because that is what he would have wanted."
