A mother who was attacked by "hoodies" while she stood at a bus stop six weeks ago has died.
Tracey Cullum, 31, was with her 12-year-old son, a female friend and three other children when she was punched to the ground.
She was telling off a group of hooded youths who had pushed to the front of the queue for the No 29 bus in the centre of Birmingham when one of them hit her in the face, knocking her to the ground and breaking her ankle.
The incident is thought to have caused a blood clot to her heart, which remained undetected until she collapsed and died last Friday.
Her boyfriend, Mark Holliday, said yesterday: "I still can't believe that she has gone. She was so fantastic, so kind and bubbly, she put everyone she met at ease.
"She just drifted away from me and I didn't even get the chance to tell her I loved her. She kept whispering to me for help while she was half-conscious but there was nothing I could do.
"After the incident at the bus stop we thought this mess was all over, we were trying to get on with our lives, and then she was just taken away from us by these pieces of scum.
"These people have taken a mother away from her son, and I have lost my rock. No one can believe that we will never see her again."
Miss Cullum, a mature student, and a friend had taken their children with two school friends to a Saturday afternoon dance event in the centre of Birmingham on July 2. They were waiting at a bus stop in the Colmore Row area.
Having told some youths off, she turned round to see where her son, Ashley, was. When she turned back was punched to the ground. The thugs fled.
Miss Cullum was taken to City Hospital where she was treated for a broken ankle and minor facial injuries, then released.
Mr Holliday, 37, an engineer, said she had been fine until last Friday night when she passed out on the landing as she went to bed. She was taken to hospital but was dead on arrival.
A post mortem examination has found that she died of a coronary embolism - a blood clot to the heart.
Mr Holliday said: "I want these scumbags to be caught so that Ashley will grow up knowing that we live in a society where we don't stand for violence like this."
Police believe that there is a link between the initial assault and her subsequent death and have appealed for witnesses to the attack.
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