TB death after wrong diagnosis

A 16-year-old girl died from tuberculosis after she was wrongly diagnosed and sent home from hospital.

Dominique Francis was discharged when she was told she had been successfully treated for pneumonia - despite suffering classic symptoms of TB. She died three weeks later.

Hospital bosses have now launched an investigation after they were forced to issue an apology to the teenager's family.

They admit that doctors failed to diagnose TB, that Dominique endured an eight-hour wait in casualty before she was given a test for the disease and that there were delays in receiving the results.

Her family have officially complained about her treatment at Whipps Cross hospital in east London, claiming one doctor told them that if she had been diagnosed more quickly she would still be alive.

Dominique, from Leyton, went to the accident and emergency department of the hospital on 8 January, complaining of a persistent cough.

Doctors diagnosed pneumonia and she was admitted to a ward for treatment. But four days later the hospital discharged her, saying she was well enough to go home.

Dominique's mother Janet, 35, says doctors told her the bed was needed for someone else. Her daughter was given a 10-day course of antibiotics to treat the assumed pneumonia. But 10 days later her condition deteriorated and her mother rushed her back to the casualty department.

Dominique then endured an eight-hour wait before being seen by a doctor and readmitted to the hospital. Tests for TB were finally taken and on 30 January she was diagnosed with the lung disease.

But despite receiving treatment for TB, Dominique's condition worsened and she died five days after the correct diagnosis.

Ms Francis said: "After Dominique's death, a consultant at Whipps Cross hospital told me that if they had found the TB earlier there was a good chance that Dominique would have survived. They said they were trying to keep her alive long enough for the drugs to work.

"I was told that the TB drugs take two weeks to be effective. That means that if she had been diagnosed as having TB right from the beginning her life could have been saved. I want to know why the doctors did not test for TB. It is supposed to be rife in east London."

A spokesman for Whipps Cross said: "When Dominique was admitted to Whipps Cross on January 8 she was diagnosed as having a community-acquired pneumonia. Unfortunately, as it is now known, Dominique was suffering from two serious infections. The first was the pneumonia, the second was TB. Clinicians did not diagnose the TB on the first admission. When Dominique returned to Whipps Cross she was readmitted following a wait of between seven and eight hours in the accident and emergency department. The reasons for this delay are being investigated."

The spokesman also said that the teenager's TB test was delayed as the hospital had to wait for specialist staff, who did not work over the weekend.

Cases of TB in London have soared in recent years, with 3,500 confirmed diagnoses last year out of 7,500 nationwide.

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