A 13-year-old girl from Calne, Wiltshire, died within a day of being diagnosed with cancer after her condition was repeatedly misdiagnosed as a chest infection, her mother has said.
Kelly Baverstock said her daughter Tanisha had been coughing for weeks and was seen by a GP in mid-January and again on 25 January, each time being prescribed antibiotics. Despite losing weight and becoming breathless, she was not taken seriously, Ms Baverstock claimed.
A week later, an outpatients appointment at Salisbury District Hospital revealed 'changes to her lungs' on an X-ray, but the family was sent home with antibiotics and told to return in four weeks. The following morning, however, hospital staff rang to say the X-rays showed 'something really nasty growing in her lungs'.
Ms Baverstock then drove Tanisha to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, where after a five-hour wait, a further X-ray confirmed she had cancer. The teenager died the next day. 'She was riddled with it – all in her chest and her heart – and she was only breathing from one lung,' Ms Baverstock said.
Both hospitals declined to comment on individual cases. Salisbury District Hospital admitted in a letter that there had been a 'muddle in referrals' due to the family's recent move from Salisbury to Calne. Ms Baverstock said she believed the hospitals had failed and been negligent.
