A boy became ‘possessed’ and contemplated suicide after contracting a throat infection, his mother has said.

Jack Maclaine, 10, underwent a sudden personality change with outbursts and anxiety attacks that left parents Alison and Neil terrified.

He refused to play sport, insisted on sleeping on the floor and reverted to watching children’s TV.

Jack of Dumfries, Scotland, would threaten to sit outside until he froze to death and wrote a note that read: ‘I’m really sorry I don’t want to live anymore. I want to be in heaven.’

He would keep asking his parents why they wouldn’t help him die.

On one family holiday his mum said ‘he developed really weird obsessions, like he became scared of steps and stairs and of walking on seagull poo’.

He developed vocal tics, a stutter, began to regress – playing with baby toys and watching Thomas the Tank Engine.

He would repeat meaningless phrases, screech, or bark like a dog and became sensitive to noise and smells.

Mum Alison said: ‘He looked like a severely autistic child. He was playing with the toys on the floor and was in his own little world. He did not look like Jack, he looked like a lost little boy.

‘They thought he might have been on the autistic spectrum, but before this there was nothing suggesting that. It was so sudden and made no sense.

‘He was very irritable. We felt like we were walking on eggshells around him. He had really severe mood swings and really isolated himself. He couldn’t cope with people.

‘There was one moment when he was jumping up and down on my neck laughing this evil laugh and when he spoke it was like it wasn’t his voice. It was as if he was possessed.

‘He stopped sleeping in his bed, saying he didn’t deserve to sleep in a nice comfy bed. He would wander around looking for the most uncomfortable place to sleep.

‘It was such a severe change in him that there had to be an explanation.’

Jack had brain scans that ruled out any neurological issues, but that only added to the stress.

Alison said: ‘I thought Jack would be happy that his brain was normal, but he was completely devastated.

‘He burst into tears and said, “This has made me feel worse that there’s no reason. This makes me want to die even more”.’

Jack was eventually diagnosed with a condition known as paediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (Pandas) – which causes inflammation of the brain.

Not much is known about Pandas, but Jack’s reaction to treatment with antibiotics was immediate.

Alison said: ‘Within a couple of days of taking antibiotics Jack was his old self again but he deteriorates when his dosage is lowered – talking about running away and becoming homeless again.

‘All the thoughts about dying had come back. And then it became harder to get the medication in him, because he didn’t want to get better, he wanted to die.

‘There was one occasion when he’d just come off them and out of the blue he held a knife to his throat and said he was going to die.’

Alison also feels it can be difficult to get ongoing antibiotics, fragmenting treatment.

She said: ‘I think partly because there’s no published studies demonstrating that long-term antibiotics are beneficial and there’s a reluctance to prescribe them because there’s concerns about us becoming resistant to them.

‘For Neil and me it has felt, at times, like we have been judged by everyone. The fact Jack could hold it together sometimes, particularly at school, meant some medics thought it was a lack of boundaries at home causing the problem. One even suggested we take up parenting classes.

Alison added: ‘There are some studies that suggest children grow out of PANDAS when they reach puberty, because the immune system matures. But there is a lack of research, so we really don’t know. There’s still a long way to go in terms of getting this illness properly recognised.

‘We take each day as it comes but we do feel hopeful.’

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