Let me help. The answers are right here:
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The fun-loving, happy teenager became withdrawn as the constant headaches took their toll.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.”
Thank you for my new tag line.
Socialized medicine/young organ donor ping...
Let me help. The answers are right here:
I forgot about lawsuits. That is why this will never work in America thankfully. See and we all hate trial lawyers...I don’t anymore...lol.
Your right. Error and neglect do happen here in our system. But the error and neglect evidenced in the story were systemic. The doctors didn’t do the MRI because they thought it was unnecesary, they were reluctant to schedule her for the scan because MRIs are very expensive, particularly in the UK, and they were sure she would be turned down. And even if she had been scheduled for the MRI, she would have had to wait for months if not a year or two. That wouldn’t have helped her either.
There are thousands of MRI machines in the US. In the UK, they have fewer than 100. If I remember correctly, they have fewer than 50. And its all because they have been deemed by NHS as “too expensive.” So, in the UK not only do they have doctors and nurses who make mistakes (they’re only human, after all), but in addition, they have a system that places the patient’s life and possible treatment on a scale of affordability and if you come out on the wrong end of that evaluation, you’re dead.
Not only that but when Princess Di had her accident in France, the paramedics were on the scene fairly quickly but didn’t get Di to the hospital until more than 90 minutes later. Why? Because the ambulance couldn’t just take her to the nearest hospital. In the French health-care system at the time, hospitals, by law, specialized in certain treatments. It took them 90 plus minutes for them to find which hospital they were supposed to take her to and that one happened to be far from where the crash was. While bureaucrats dithered, Princess Diana died.
We certainly can do better. WE can do better; not the government. See also post #46.
“... what you believe ...”
If you think I believe that the govt should determine what medical procedures my doctor must “withhold” from me in the way of treatment .. you are sadly mistaken.
I guess I should have put a [/s] sign at the end to denote my statement was sarcasm.
However, THE STIUMLUS DOES STATE THAT THE GOVT WILL MAKE THE DECISION OF WHETHER YOU ARE ENTITLED TO ANY MEDICAL PROCEDURE AFTER A CERTAIN AGE. That is a horrible idea. That IS socialized medicine.
Since the liberals are for abortion (killing babies in the womb) and euthanasia (withholding treatment from old people) I can’t figure out who the “they” are who “are striving to have people live forever”.
Prayers for Jenna and family.
Sorry I misunderstood your post. Thank you for setting me straight. Have a great weekend!
Amazing. Your story is very similar to Aris’ (my buddy at work) Only, he wasn’t quite so lucky, and his infection set in faster. He sustained a head injury and some internal injuries, so he was still in the hospital when the infection set in. He had the leg amputated before he ever left. It was the same story though. Doctors told him he was lucky to be alive, even without the leg. Sometimes these infections happen—just his bad luck. there was nothing they could have done to prevent it. Everything was done correctly.
I am glad that your situation turned out better than his.
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