Posted on 02/14/2009 8:14:42 PM PST by Reaganesque
Days after doctors told Jenna Lester, 16, she had a virus she was dead from a brain haemorrhage. Her mum has battled for answers ever since.
As Sonia Lester anxiously stroked her daughter Jenna’s hair, she hoped that the 16-year-old’s symptoms really were nothing more than a tummy bug.
Jenna had suffered crippling headaches and aching eyes for weeks before she collapsed at home and was rushed to hospital.
Doctors diagnosed a stomach virus – despite the family’s pleas to give her a brain scan.
She was sent home but a week later suffered a massive seizure. Back at the hospital medics found a clot on her brain.
And within four days Jenna was dead. Sonia says: “When Jenna collapsed my husband Mark and I knew that something was wrong with her head.
“She’d been having appalling headaches for weeks and on top of that she’d hit her head hard when she collapsed.
“We begged the doctors over and over to do a brain scan, but they refused. It was only after the seizure that doctors started taking notice of her symptoms and we finally realised what a terrible mistake had been made.”
Shortly before becoming ill, Jenna had celebrated her 16th birthday with a trip to London to see the Phantom Of The Opera. Sonia continues: “I have such happy memories of that time – she was so happy and excited. But then soon after she changed.
“She was much quieter and not at all like herself.”
The fun-loving, happy teenager became withdrawn as the constant headaches took their toll.
Worried Mark and Sonia, from Wainscott, Kent, took her to the doctor and to see an optician. But neither could see a problem.
Sonia said: “None of us could understand it. Something was definitely wrong – but no one could tell us what.
“Then she collapsed and it became obvious that what she had was so much worse than we had thought.”
Jenna was admitted to the Medway Maritime Hospital, doctors performed a series of routine tests and diagnosed a gastric viral infection.
Meanwhile her parents asked doctor after doctor to investigate the headaches. “It was so frustrating when the doctors said she had a virus, because that just did not cover all her symptoms,” Sonia says.
“Jenna was put on a ward full of elderly people and she looked so fragile.
“It broke my heart to see her like that.
“But we couldn’t do anything.
“We asked every single doctor that we could find if they would be able to help us, but all that any of them would say was that it wasn’t
their department.”
Despite her parents’ pleas, Jenna was sent home shortly afterwards. But in the following days her headaches became so severe she could barely move.
Again Sonia begged doctors to look at her daughter’s head. Jenna was finally booked in for a scan on February 13, 2006, only to be told she must wait two more days following a communication foul-up. Hours after Sonia was told of the delay, her daughter suffered a huge seizure and was rushed back to hospital.
Sonia says: “After the seizure all the problems we’d faced in getting her a scan disappeared.
“ Suddenly there was a machine available and she was taken in straight away. Soon after, the doctors told us there was a massive clot in her brain and we knew all our worst fears had come true.”
Jenna – unconscious by now – was rushed to London’s King’s College Hospital, where surgeons worked against the clock to save her.
“Despite their efforts, Jenna’s life-support machine was turned off four days later.
“When the machine was switched off, it was like a hole was ripped out of all our lives,” Sonia remembers. “We were shattered, just devastated.
“What made it worse was the surgeon at King’s told us that if Jenna had been scanned earlier he could have operated while she was conscious – improving her chances dramatically.
“That’s why we have fought so hard for an apology from the NHS – if we can prevent this happening again, we will.” Tearfully, Sonia remembers her daughter’s kindness and generosity. “Jenna was such a caring, loving person.
“If she could help in any way she always would and her dad and I were so proud of her.
“After she died we agreed for her to be a multi-organ donor because we knew it was what she would have wanted – that was the kind of person she was.”
Sonia and Mark, who have a son, Adam, 13, and 16-year-old daughter Sam, spent three years fighting for an apology from the doctors behind her faulty diagnosis. Earlier this month, the NHS finally admitted mistakes had been made.
Her death was a second fatal error on the part of the Medway doctors. Lauren Simmons died in May 2005.
Like Jenna, 17-year-old Lauren suffered a brain haemorrhage after doctors wrongly diagnosed her with a virus – again failing to perform a brain scan or blood tests.
The NHS also apologised for the “flawed diagnosis” of Lauren this month.
A statement from the Trust said: “Medway NHS Foundation Trust would like to reiterate its sincere apologies to the Lester family for the shortcomings in care Jenna received.
“Whilst nothing can compensate for this tragic experience,
lessons have been learnt and robust arrangements are in place to ensure this does not happen again.
“The Trust adopted recommendations the Healthcare Commission issued in relation to this case in 2007.”
Disgusted, Sonia says: “If I saw the doctors now that I believe are responsible for these horrific mistakes, I wouldn’t want to look at them, let alone speak to them.
“We have wanted an apology for Jenna’s death for so long and finally the NHS has admitted they were wrong.
“But it will never be enough for us because things still need to change at Medway.
“In just six months, two girls have died in exactly the same circumstances and absolutely nothing has been done.
“The doctors involved are still practising – none of them even faced a suspension let alone a ban.
“More action needs to be taken to stop this happening again and if we can do anything to highlight that we will.
“No parent should have to lose their child in such awful circumstances, and if we can help stop this at least we will know that Jenna did not die for nothing.”
“Free” Socialist healthcare is good as long as you don’t get sick or injured. If you do, you’re toast.
Makes you want to scream.
Or strangle someone.
We are going to have the same problems once they get their list of approved treatments for you. Thanks, Democrats.
And .. this type of idiocy is what the Stimulus has just bought us.
And .. according to the stimulus - the main target will be the elderly .. because if you’re past a certain age .. and you’re just going to die anyway .. we can’t waste the govt’s money on helping you.
Doesn’t that sound just lovely ..?? Scary is the word.
What’s the big deal? Just another life that the Agents of the State decided wasn’t worth living. We must yield to their wisdom if we are to have the means to provide a uniform mediocre existence to those the State does deem worthy of life. (As well as a champagne and caviar existence to the all important Elite of the State, without whom we wouldn’t know how to live properly.)
I finally was convinced to go to the hospital a few years ago when I was suffering the worst pain I could ever imagine, and I am an expert on pain. After being checked in ER, including x-rays, the doctor began telling me about how he was going to release me. As if by an act of God, I threw up half way through his sentence. At that point, I was given a CAT scan and admitted to ICU with a subarachnoid haemorrhage. I had no idea I was bleeding and I definitely didn’t know 40% don’t live.
If THEY provide your health care, THEY get to decide what they choose to give you. Or NOT give you.
THEY call the shots because it's THEIR health care.
worse than terrible
Oh, and as a FYI: The organization that determines what the standards will be for the rationing of health-care in the UK is called the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Yes, the people who decided that granny must die to save money for the health-care of people who are worth saving are NICE people. Its positively Orwellian.
I am not saying I want the same health care they have in the UK, but it is also pretty easy to find these cases here in the US. Doctors make mistakes. There are also doctors that are just lazy or not paying attention. Sometimes people are made to suffer needlessly, and sometimes they will die from the mistakes. There is no healthcare system in the world that can prevent doctors, nurses and other medical personnel from making mistakes.
A guy in my station had surgery on a broken ankle last fall. He was in the hospital recovering from other injuries as well. His wife kept asking what the smell was, and the nurses kept saying she was imagining things. 3 days later when he finally saw the doctor who did the surgery, the bandages came off and the ankle was horribly infected. He had his left ankle amputated and is now learning how to use his new prosthesis.
The service I received at the Emergency was quick, complete and professional.
American Health care may have it's flaws but I have found it to be topnotch.
In many other countries they get lousy and dangerous care....unless they grease palms. One of the things that sets this nation apart from so many others is that we don’t have the corruption of bribery. It goes hand-in-hand with nationalized healthcare.
What they should be are DEAD people.
L
In my freshman year of college, my right hand was going numb and was twitching. A week later, I decided to call a neurologist. The same day I had an appointment, I had an EMG, and I got an MRI. I think my parents paid a total of $100. The diagnosis... Carpel-Tunnel Syndrome.
That was my hand.
A Canadian friend of mine who was on a student visa had horrific kidney stones. The wait time in Winnipeg was six weeks. His parents paid $5000 out-of-pocket four weeks later to have them blasted out in North Dakota.
Damn, that’s all I can think of when I hear horror stories like this.
But at least in the US there is no problem getting a second opinion if you think your doctor is wrong and are willing to pay for the privilege.
These people wanted a second opinion and they were blown off. The didn’t have the option of paying for a second opinion and they didn’t have the political clout to get one.
At least we will be able to rest easy knowing that our caring leaders will not subject themselves to such flimsy medical care. They will most assuredly ensure that they get premium CongressCare.
Socialists always claim to be doing something for you, while they are actually doing something to you.
A few weeks ago I had a severe migraine. My husband took me to emergency, I was placed in a quiet dark room in within minutes of arriving. Less then a half hour later I was given a shot for the pain. Two hours later they did a MRI to be sure it was only a migraine not something more serious.
The service I received at the Emergency was quick, complete and professional.
American Health care may have it’s flaws but I have found it to be topnotch.
***That’s why the dems want to change it to a National Health Care System...I know, it doesn’t make sense. And because it doesn’t make sense it makes sense to them.
This type of Government Health Care coming our way per the Obama/Polosi 2009 Stimulas Bill.
“I am not saying I want the same health care they have in the UK, but it is also pretty easy to find these cases here in the US. Doctors make mistakes.”
Sure - but scanning equipment is EXPENSIVE, so there are very few in England, due to their cost controls. At least here, you WILL get that scan if you have a reasonable cause, and that is whether you have insurance or not.
But, in the end, I will simply drive to Mexico, where I expect our top-notch doctors to migrate (assuming they get control of their crime).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.