‘They said there is so much fluid around his lungs and they feared he had fluid on his heart. I was in despair’
A mum has shared harrowing photos of her son fighting for his life in hospital after she claims a GP misdiagnosed deadly Strep A with covid.
Chontelle Gosling said she was told her 11-year-old son, Sunnie, may have strained a muscle from coughing by her GP and should go home- but was given emergency care at Colchester Hospital’s A&E.
Sunnie contracted Strep A in July and was receiving life support treatment at the Royal Brompton Hospital, in London for four weeks.
Medics operated on Sunnie to drain the fluid from his lungs and he improved initially before suddenly deteriorated with suspected sepsis.
Sunnie, who spent a month in intensive care and was diagnosed with Step A, returned home on 16 July.
The youngster was struck down by the virus in the summer of 2022, with Chontelle taking him to the GP on 15 June and again two days later. Both times the 34-year-old from Essex was told to go home.
When Sunnie got worse his mother took him to Colchester Hospital’s A&E department on the morning of 20 June before he was rushed to Royal Brompton Hospital, in London, for specialist care.
While sitting in the ambulance the seriousness of her son’s illness sank in for Chontelle.
The mum-of-four said: “We got there and there were about 11 people waiting in the room for us.
“It was straight into the PICU (intensive care), they did tests, scans and everything.
“They said there is so much fluid around his lungs and they feared he had fluid on his heart. I was in despair.”
After a month in intensive care Sunnie was sent home on 20 July.
Chontelle said: “It had been a bad year for us anyway, we had moved in with my grandfather to care for him, and he had just passed away before this happened.
“Thankfully our family rallied around to help us. Sunnie has a check-up scheduled in two weeks’ time, with fluid still present in his lungs. ‘He can’t run as fast as he could before and he missed most of the end of Year 6 at school, having spent a month in hospital.
“But we are thankful. There were times when they said ‘he’s not out of the woods yet’ when he started going downhill again.
“They told us he was a very poorly boy and that we were lucky we brought him into A&E when we did.”
Chontelle wants to issue a warning to all parents to ensure they take the symptoms seriously.
Scarlet fever is usually a mild illness, but it is highly infectious, so the UK Health Security Agency is advising parents to be on the lookout for symptoms.
These include a sore throat, headache and fever with a characteristic fine, pinkish or red body rash with a sandpapery feel.
Sunnie has a check-up scheduled in two weeks’ time, with fluid still present in his lungs.
As of Thursday, 15 children in the UK had died from Strep A.
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