A schoolgirl was left fighting for her life after doctors dismissed meningitis symptoms as a common cold.
In June last year, Harri, then 12, had an average cold suffering from a runny rose and headache but after a week things took a turn for the worst.
The schoolgirl’s temperature soared and she was shaking but her mum Toni Tuson, 38, claims she was dismissed from A&E despite a blood test confirming she had an infection.
Later in the evening, Harri, from Eltham, London, rapidly deteriorated and she was rushed in to hospital where she spent six days in an induced coma.
Ms Tuson, who is a business information manager, has shared Harri’s story to encourage other mums to trust their instinct and raise awareness of the bacterial infection.
She said: “Harri is very lucky to be alive.
“At one point, she was so unstable doctors prepared me for the worst.
“It was horrendous as I had been in Urgent Care and A&E all day with her but we were sent home.
“Even though she was showing obvious signs of infection such as a high temperature – almost at 40 – yet she was shaking.
“Her body also became mottled but a dose of paracetamol masked it making her appear better than she was.” Ms Tuson claims the doctor diagnosed Harri with a virus but deep down she knew it was something more sinister.
She pleaded for a blood test as Harri looked ‘grey and unwell’.
Ms Tuson said: “My gut feeling was telling me this isn’t just a cold or virus.
“I had to push for a blood test and it came back with markers that would indicate an infection but we were discharged.
“In hindsight and the benefit of all the research I have since done, I shouldn’t have left but we were there for eight hours and I was made to feel like a neurotic parent and that nothing was wrong, so I had to trust the doctor’s word and go home.” Ms Tuson lay at the end of her daughter’s bed with an overnight hospital bag ready.
At approximately 2am, Harri woke up and walked to the toilet but didn’t return to her room.
Ms Tuson adds: “She was completely out of it and didn’t even know where she was.
“She was staring right through me and looked brain damaged.
“One pupil was bigger than the other and I later found out that this was a seizure.
“I was terrified.” An ambulance arrived and they were rushed back to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Woolwich, London.
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