Coronation Street spoilers: Horror as Weatherfield child is poisoned

Gemma (Dollly-Rose Campbell) has been worried about young Joseph (William Flanagan) recently in Coronation Street. When the lad complained of having a headache Gemma was taking no chances and rushed him off to A&E.

It seemed like she was just being overly cautious, given that her brother Paul (Peter Ash)’s MND symptoms started in a very minor way. The doctor who saw Joseph advised Chesney (Sam Aston) that Gemma needed to relax a bit because there was nothing seriously wrong with their boy.

In upcoming episodes, however, Joseph becomes seriously unwell – and it looks like he’s being deliberately harmed.

When he tells Gemma he doesn’t feel well she decides to heed the doctor’s advice and not get things out of proportion. She packs Joseph off to school, thinking he’ll be fine once he gets there.

Chesney gets a call later from the school asking him to pick his son up as he’s poorly. Once they get home he has a go at Gemma for not taking Joseph’s complaints seriously.

It seems she can’t win and Gemma takes offence at Chesney’s suggestion that she’s not coping. She says she feels like she’s a terrible mother and storms out.

Joseph is no better the next day, and Bernie (Jane Hazlegrove) suggests one of her alternative remedies, saying that a nice cup of lavender tea will put him right. Gemma whips up the brew and makes Joseph drink it – and shortly after that he collapses.

Chesney calls an ambulance and Joseph is taken to hospital. Chesney feels guilty that he didn’t listen to Gemma when she previously said something was badly wrong with Joseph, but then the doctor comes out to talk to him and drops a huge bombshell.

The doctor says Joseph has been poisoned.

What’s even worse is that, because of her previous behaviour, the medical staff suspect Gemma of deliberately poisoning him.

The family sit down for a special ‘Christmas’ lunch so that Bernie – who is facing a jail sentence – can be involved in what’s likely to be Paul’s last Christmas. As the festivities get into full swing Chesney arrives with Joseph and a child protection officer – who wants to talk to Gemma about whether she poisoned Joseph.

Well that’s one way to destroy the party mood. How much trouble is Gemma in?

‘Gemma and Chesney are thinking, how’s he been poisoned?’, Sam Aston said.

‘Who’s he been poisoned by? How has it even happened? Then you’ve got the whole situation with the social worker thinking, what’s going on here? Is Gemma fit to be looking after him?

‘So it all starts to spiral out of control a bit quickly. The social worker has a chat with the doctor, whilst Chesney and Gemma are bedside with Joseph. And they’re just questioning Gemma really.’

Reflecting on the prospect of Gemma possibly poisoning Joseph, Sam added: ‘He knows that she’d never do anything to purposely harm him, but he does worry. But you had the situation with Bertie and the tablets, in the bag when she was childminding. Now this.

‘He’s just thinking, is she all right? But he’s got to tread carefully as well because you don’t want to falsely accuse your loved one of something. Because you can dig yourself into a deep hole pretty quick! So it’s a tricky situation.’

‘There’s a lot more to come and it definitely is going to put a strain on their marriage. They’ve got some difficult times ahead.’

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