Girl, 16, with broken back sent home by doctors

A TEENAGE girl who fell 12ft and broke her spine was sent home from hospital screaming in pain after doctors said there was ‘no reason to keep her in’.

Chloe Wilson, 16, of East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, had been visiting her boyfriend when she suffered the fall after losing her balance while leaning on an upstairs bannister at his parents’ home.

She was taken to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital’s A&E department on June 17 where her parents, Jennifer and Scott Wilson, were initially told there was no serious damage.

Mrs Wilson, 32, a care assistant, said: ‘They sent her for an X-ray. She was really screaming and had lost all feeling in her bum, leg and foot on the right side. But when

‘She was really screaming’

she came back from the X-ray, the doctor said it was good news and nothing was broken.’

A second doctor told her there was ‘no reason to keep her in’ the hospital and discharged her.

The family were sent home, but within hours received a phone call from the initial doctor.

‘He said he was surprised she had been discharged and that he wanted her to come back in and was sending an ambulance for her,’ Mrs Wilson said.

Chloe’s condition deteriorated overnight and two emergency MRI scans showed she had fractures in her spine.

A spokesman from Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board said:

‘Patients discharged from any emergency department (ED) are given advice on what to do if their symptoms change. In this patient’s case, her symptoms did change and the family followed advice and brought her back to ED.’