A MUM is demanding an apology from Basildon Hospital because she says doctors missed her daughter’s inflamed appendix.

Jessica Taylor, seven, was taken to A&E screaming in agony, and doctors diagnosed a urine infection.

Jessica, who lives with her mum Karyn, 41, and four-year-old brother in Church Road, Basildon, was taken in nine days ago.

Her mother had to phone around relatives to find someone to take her as the ambulance service said it would take an hour to get to her.

Jessica was given antibiotics and eventually sent home on Saturday with Ms Taylor being told if the pain continued, to give her painkillers.

Ms Taylor said: “She kept moaning and saying ‘mummy my tummy hurts’. When I called the hospital, they said to give her paracetamol and see how she went.”

However, Jessica started vomiting on Sunday and Ms Taylor rushed her back to hospital, having again been told an ambulance would take an hour to arrive.

Jessica underwent an emergency operation, during which a surgeon checked her organs, and found she had appendicitis. The organ was then removed.

An angry Ms Taylor has now lodged a complaint through the hospital’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service.

She said: “This should have been spotted earlier. You think you are safe in their hands. If they take that long to find out something simple like appendicitis, what else could they miss?”

A hospital spokesman said Jessica’s appendix had been mildly inflamed, but not close to rupture.

She added: “We are sorry to hear Ms Taylor is unhappy with some aspects of her daughter’s care.

“While the trust believes she was treated appropriately for both her clinical conditions, we’re are very happy to discuss this further with Ms Taylor.

“We recognise it’s very distressing when a child is in hospital, but clinical diagnoses aren’t necessarily just one thing.”

THE ambulance service has already apologised for not being able to take Jessica to hospital.

A statement added: “Our paramedics in the control room monitored Jessica’s condition speaking with her mum on several occasions.”

It said the service was recruiting 400 student paramedics, putting extra ambulances on the road and taking other steps to maximise the number of paramedics on Essex ambulances. 

The statement added: “This will help us get to patients like Jessica more quickly and provide a better service.”