Aug 21 2002
 

By Patsy Payne, Epsom Post

PARENTS were sent into a panic over a measles outbreak after two doctors separately misdiagnosed a sick toddler taken to Epsom's Accident and Emergency unit.

Anxious single mum, Lisa Kew, was told by the casualty doctors that her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Saskia had measles. But later the same day a GP diagnosed the illness as a simple virus.

Lisa has complained to health chiefs at Epsom and St Helier Trust about her daughter's treatment, and they have promised to investigate the incident.

The trauma began when Lisa found ulcers suddenly in and around Saskia's mouth.

She immediately phoned the doctor, but could not get an appointment with her GP and took the first available emergency appointment with another at 4.30pm. When the rash became worse she started to panic and rushed the little girl down to Epsom A&E.

On arrival at the Dorking Road hospital, Lisa was seen almost immediately.

"The doctor looked in her mouth and ears and told me he thought it was measles. I was petrified. My brother was in hospital for six weeks with measles and I know the dangers."

The doctor called a colleague for a second opinion, and he confirmed the measles diagnosis. But Lisa was unhappy that the second doctor did not appear to give Saskia an examination.

When she got home she alerted other parents to the hospital's diagnosis.

She said: "I phoned the pre-school and warned them, because a number of the mothers there, like me, are doubtful about the full MMR.

"They in turn phoned their friends who might have been mixing with their children and so on."

But it was during the 4.30pm appointment that Lisa was shocked to hear Saskia did not have measles but a virus called hands, foot and mouth, which only lasts a few days. Lisa, who lives on Lambert Road, Banstead, has now made a formal complaint to the health authority.

Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust promised a "full and thorough investigation" once it receives the official complaint.

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