Now the daughter of Mr Marta Adi and Madam Umi has been warded in KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH).

Neither are the doctors at KKH, who tried but failed to save the couple's three-year-old son Marzuq, who had appeared quite well just hours before he died on Wednesday.

He became the first child in Singapore to die of HFMD in seven years.

His sister, Mardhiyah, four, will spend some time at KKH, just in case.

Her mother, a 28-year-old housewife, said the two children, just 11 months apart in age, had suffered a run-in with HFMD some months earlier, but had recovered quickly.

Then Marzuq caught the infection again this month.

On Sunday, he said his hand was itchy. Madam Umi found two red spots and thought they were mosquito bites.

But when she picked him up from nursery class at Elias Kindergarten in Woodlands on Monday, the dots had become blisters and there was a rash on his legs and feet.

She took him to a nearby clinic where the general practitioner diagnosed HFMD, and prescribed antibiotics.

The next day, the usually hyperactive boy became easily tired, but was still happy to play. That night, though, he started to vomit and his hands shook.

He appeared to be back to normal on Wednesday, and ate some soup noodles. Then he threw up again.

His mother gave him the hydration salts provided by the doctor, but he could not keep anything down and went on retching even though there was nothing left in his stomach to throw up.

Madam Umi took him to a nearby doctor's clinic and asked the receptionist if he could be attended to first.

However, more than half an hour later, she gave up and rushed him to the Woodlands polyclinic.

The polyclinic doctor directed them to KKH, where Marzuq was put on a drip due to his severe dehydration. He appeared to improve, and even asked for a Coke.

The doctors there felt it would be better to keep him under observation in the intensive care unit.

But on the way there, he suffered a seizure, a sign of encephalitis or inflammation of the brain, and a rare but severe complication associated with HFMD.

Said Madam Umi: 'I heard them call for a 'Code Blue' team to Room 16 where he was. But he looked OK, so I wasn't worried.'

She found out only later that a Code Blue meant resuscitation.

Mr Adi, who works with private security firm Aetos, saw two doctors rush in and use a defibrillator on his son.

A nurse asked the parents to go in. 'I think we lost him then. But the doctors kept trying for an hour,' he recalled.

A tearful Madam Umi added: 'It was so sudden. On his way to ICU, he was still talking. He said he 'sayang' (Malay for love) me.

'But when I saw blood coming from his mouth and nose, I knew there was no hope.'

Patients with encephalitis are known to deteriorate very rapidly. Doctors said it happened to several of the seven children who died from HFMD in the 2000-2001 outbreak, the last time anyone here died from the disease.

The kindergarten, where 15 children have come down with HFMD, has been ordered to close for 10 days and clean up.

The morning after Marzuq's death, Madam Umi noticed a few red spots on her daughter and ulcers in her mouth.

The couple immediately took her to KKH, where the doctors decided to admit her, although they said that normally, the symptoms would be considered mild.

Mardhiyah was very close to her brother.

Said Mr Adi: 'She knows he's gone, but I don't think she knows it's forever.'

salma@sph.com.sg