MY ZaCH HaD an aPPenDiX trauma too
Mum tells of her five-year-old son’s escape at hospital
ANOTHER family have hit out over the late diagnosis of a burst appendix at a state-of-the-art children’s hospital.
Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children has only been open 21 months but already three children have been misdiagnosed.
We told on Tuesday how four-year-old Karis Cochrane was turned away twice, her illness written off as constipation and dehydration.
By the time she was diagnosed, doctors had just 45 minutes to save her life.
Zach Perkins, five, got peritonitis after his appendix burst, spreading infection in his abdomen, in June 2015.
His mum Yvonne, 29, said: “Reading the story about Karis was like deja vu.
“Zach had been sick but I thought it was a stomach bug. But the next morning he was complaining of severe abdominal pain.
“My GP said he thought it was appendicitis but called the Royal Hospital to get another opinion. He told me the surgeon thought it was appendicitis too and to go straight to A&E.”
Yvonne, of Easterhouse, Glasgow, arrived with Zach about 2pm and expected to see a surgeon almost immediately. But she said: “We saw a nurse who told us Zach just had constipation.
“Zach was sweating and diahorrea had started but the nurse wanted to send us home with a laxitive.”
She said staff eventually agreed to tests which showed a high level of infection.
She was told Zach would have appendix surgery that night. But it was the next morning before Zach had the five-and-a-half-hour op.
He needed antibiotics for peritonitis, which can kill.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said diagnosing appendicitis in children “can be challenging” and “sometimes involves a number of presentations for medical assessment”.
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