Dad: What’s wrong with our daughter? (From Echo)
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Dad: What’s wrong with our daughter?
9:20am Thursday 17th May 2012 in Castle Point By Christine Sexton
Mystery symptoms – Sydney Compton in hospital
A FATHER has lodged a complaint against Southend Hospital after medics failed to uncover what was wrong with his daughter.
Sydney Compton, 11, of Hilversum Way, Canvey, became ill with headaches, stomach pains and sickness in February and underwent tests at the hospital.
The Winter Gardens Primary School pupil was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), a condition which causes extreme tiredness and is believed by some to be psychological.
However, her parents, Debbie and Mark Compton, questioned the diagnosis and asked the hospital to carry out a scan.
Mr Compton, 36, said: “The scan revealed Sydney had fat all around her liver and some sort of sludge in her gall bladder, but the consultant said that was normal for an 11-year-old.
“We asked for another hospital to assess the scan and he got King’s College Hospital, in London, to look at it.
“We heard nothing, so we called King’s and they said they had requested Sydney be referred to them, but then we were told the consultant paediatrician had gone on holiday.”
The Echo called Southend Hospital and within an hour the Comptons had received a call saying the referral had been made.
On Monday night, Sydney’s sickness and pain increased and she was referred to Basildon Hospital, where she spent the night before being discharged.
Mr Compton said: “They seemed very concerned this has been going on so long, but they said without her notes they couldn’t treat her.
“We are just really worried she might have liver or gall bladder disease. She has missed so much schooling. It’s been a complete nightmare.”
Jacqueline Totterdell, chief executive of Southend Hospital, said: “We have received a complaint regarding this patient and it is currently being investigated.
“We have sent a written acknowledgement to the family with an indication of when we anticipate we will have completed our investigations.
“In the meantime we will, of course, do all we can to assist them in their request for a second opinion.”
Comments(21)
al coniston
says...
10:01am Thu 17 May 12
Change your name to Abdikarím, Nazwiskow or something equally foreign, play the race card and i bet you will soon be seen !
al coniston
says...
10:01am Thu 17 May 12
Change your name to Abdikarím, Nazwiskow or something equally foreign, play the race card and i bet you will soon be seen !
howironic
says...
10:03am Thu 17 May 12
al coniston wrote:Doherty or Buckley would also have the same effect.
the NHS has become a laughing stock and most GP's just want you in and out of their surgery as soon as possible . . . and i speak first hand. Change your name to Abdikarím, Nazwiskow or something equally foreign, play the race card and i bet you will soon be seen !
tepluap
says...
10:07am Thu 17 May 12
As a parent I would have contacted Kings hospital directly and asked when the appointment would be .
I wish the young lady well
Whatthe*
says...
10:23am Thu 17 May 12
go in through A & E
If you do not like your GP change they are not all the same.
Get well soon Sydney
ccd
says...
10:40am Thu 17 May 12
Whatthe* wrote:Wise words. Seems like a plan.
get in your car and drive to Kings ,
go in through A & E
If you do not like your GP change they are not all the same.
Get well soon Sydney
emcee
says...
1:03pm Thu 17 May 12
Whatthe* wrote:It's all well and good to say change your GP but attitudes of GPs to get you in and out of their surgery, with minimal input by them as possible, seems to be the rule rather than the exception. In which case it would, in many cases, be a "better the devil you know..." situation.
get in your car and drive to Kings ,
go in through A & E
If you do not like your GP change they are not all the same.
Get well soon Sydney
emcee
says...
1:14pm Thu 17 May 12
tepluap wrote:This seems, on the face of it, a situation where the hospital is not treating the patient with the urgency that may, or may not, be necessary.
i'm on the hospitals side here, they are not miracle workers, with hindsight its easy to say certain test should have been carried out.
As a parent I would have contacted Kings hospital directly and asked when the appointment would be .
I wish the young lady well
We need to also ask why Basildon Hospital could not treat her. Are all the notes not available via their IT systems? If not why not? What happens when someone is taken very ill on the other side of the country?
The NHS is, indeed, an admin/bureaucratic nightmare and it is becoming a farce.
tepluap
says...
2:59pm Thu 17 May 12
APR
says...
4:45pm Thu 17 May 12
tepluap wrote:I agree.
i'm on the hospitals side here, they are not miracle workers, with hindsight its easy to say certain test should have been carried out.
As a parent I would have contacted Kings hospital directly and asked when the appointment would be .
I wish the young lady well
I would also like to hear the hospitals side of the story.
Blind Haze
says...
4:46pm Thu 17 May 12
Blind Haze
says...
4:47pm Thu 17 May 12
Blind Haze wrote:Following on, I do wish Sydney all the best - I have a son of a similar age and could not imagine the stress, anxiety and worry that their family is going through.
Society's too litigious nowadays - if a doctor makes makes 1 wrong diagnosis out of 10,000 then they could be sued, vilified by the press and struck off. You can't blame them for being indecisive due to the repurcussions of being wrong.
tepluap
says...
6:21pm Thu 17 May 12
marshman
says...
7:15pm Thu 17 May 12
whataday wrote:I wasn't happy with the treatment I was getting at the hospital and told my GP I wanted a referral to A. N. Other consultant at a different hospital. He held his breath for a second and turned slightly red before blurting out "It's not up to the patient to determine their course of treatment and where they have it". Patients having the right to choose hospitals and them being allowed to exercise that right are two very different animals indeed. Let's hope Sydney now gets a swift diagnosis and the appropriate treatment.
It is the parents right to ask their GP to refer her to Kings College or Gt. Ormond Street Hospital. Patients Choice can go to any hospital you like
emcee
says...
8:42pm Thu 17 May 12
marshman wrote:If that is the attitude of your GP, it sounds to me that you were not very assertive with your request. If your doctor does not adhere to any patient rights you MUST make a complaint aginst him/her. The reason a lot of GPs get away with earning so much for doing so little is because patients are afraid to assert themselves more.
whataday wrote:I wasn't happy with the treatment I was getting at the hospital and told my GP I wanted a referral to A. N. Other consultant at a different hospital. He held his breath for a second and turned slightly red before blurting out "It's not up to the patient to determine their course of treatment and where they have it". Patients having the right to choose hospitals and them being allowed to exercise that right are two very different animals indeed. Let's hope Sydney now gets a swift diagnosis and the appropriate treatment.
It is the parents right to ask their GP to refer her to Kings College or Gt. Ormond Street Hospital. Patients Choice can go to any hospital you like
Steve H
says...
8:12pm Fri 18 May 12
Daughter?
Huh?
Steve H
says...
8:12pm Fri 18 May 12
Daughter?
Huh?
Steve H
says...
8:12pm Fri 18 May 12
Daughter?
Huh?
E-Types
says...
8:19pm Fri 18 May 12
howironic wrote:What about the names
al coniston wrote:Doherty or Buckley would also have the same effect.
the NHS has become a laughing stock and most GP's just want you in and out of their surgery as soon as possible . . . and i speak first hand. Change your name to Abdikarím, Nazwiskow or something equally foreign, play the race card and i bet you will soon be seen !
'Felix Wedge-Warp or Tobias Walk-Stutter'
Do you think they might be treated quicker because of the double barrel or isn't it a class thang just a race thang?
StuckInTraffic
says...
7:12pm Sat 19 May 12
ME will result in severe pain at times, it can happen in any area of the body but it isn't uncommon for it to manifest itself exactly as described.
The parents say they are worried she might have liver or gall bladder disease, this can be easily discounted following a simple blood test which would have been carried out as routine. She, according to the echo reporting, is not exhibiting any of the main symptons of either of these diseases so it seems very unlikely these would be the problem.
My best advice would be to stop pretending ME is not a real illness, accept that it is, accept your daughter has it, and then you can move forward and ensure through the correct treatment, diet, and lifestyle choices that this will cause her the minimum impact in her future life.
whataday says...
9:32am Thu 17 May 12