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 A
six-year-old girl died fighting for breath in hospital after doctors failed to
diagnose her fatal heart condition 11 times.
Danielle Kennedy was seen by nine different
medics before the condition cardiac dysrhthmia killed her.
But over a period of seven weeks none of the
experts - including five consultants - identified the illness. Her heart
was never even checked for problems.
Yesterday her grieving mother Shirley vowed to
sue the children's hospital after a coroner called for changes in clinical procedures.
She said: "I took her to hospital on every
occasion she suffered a seizure. Despite my concern I was not told her
condition was life-threatening."
Child health campaigners said the case
highlighted another kind of "ageism" in the NHS - where doctors do not
think to look for cardiac illness in youngsters.
The group Cardiac Risk in the Young believes up
to 400 children may be victims of undiagnosed heart conditions each year.
Danielle, her mother's only child, died at the Derbyshire Children's hospital
just before Christmas 1999.
A Derby inquest heard the youngster, from the
city's Chaddesden area, suffered dizzy spells and fits leading doctors to believe
she might be epileptic.
Coroner Peter Ashworth said he would be
contacting the hospital to highlight the need for a fast track system for such
difficult cases.
With permission Daily Express
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