Heartbroken parents from Manchester thought they had their daughter’s health taken care of after a visit to the hospital—not knowing that hours later, she would die of a mysterious disease the doctors failed to see.
According to a report by The Daily Mail, the toddler was taken to her local doctors’ after she started showing signs of lethargy and refused to either drink or eat.
“She was diagnosed with a viral infection and sent home but after her condition worsened her parents returned the following day to see a different doctor,” the report said.
On the second trip to the doctors, she was diagnosed with a throat ulcer; the doctors prescribed ibuprofen.
On the third day, two-year-old Scarlett’s lips had turned blue. At the Royal Bolton Hospital A&E, she was diagnosed with tonsillitis.
“On the car ride home she seemed to pick up for the first time in days,” said her mother Megan Burns. “She was eating and drinking and talking—she was happy.”
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“I was sleeping on the sofa and at about 11pm she woke up and came to me for cuddles and then went back to our bed and had cuddles with her daddy.”
Her father Leon put his daughter to bed and noticed that she was making “funny noises.”
When Megan went to her daughter’s room, she found her unresponsive.
“I tried everything to wake her up. She was so limp in my arms—my beautiful baby.”
The most frustrating part of the ordeal was that post-mortem examination failed to find the cause for the toddler’s death.
“As a mother you know when your child is poorly but the doctors just wouldn’t listen,” Megan said. “I will fight until the end until I know why and what happened to my little angel.”
Heather Edwards, head of communications of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘If sadly a child dies unexpectedly we always review the circumstances to see whether or not anything could have been done differently and the findings are shared with the family.
“The family is offered bereavement support. We can’t comment in detail on this particular case as an inquest is yet to be held.”
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