FURY AND FRUSTRATION ...THE VICTIMS’ STORIES
‘We thought NHS would help. We were wrong’
FORMER teacher Theresa Nolan, 36, from Renfrewshire, described how her three-year-old son Patrick was bitten by a tick in their garden while they were living in Dubai and developed a bullseye rash within a week. The young family moved home to Scotland to get help, but despite the rash – and the toddler’s rapidly deteriorating health – NHS testing for Lyme disease came back negative. But when he was tested privately in a foreign clinic the results were positive. Last night, the mother called for better testing in Scotland. She said: ‘We came home. We thought the NHS would find us answers, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The NHS tests are not good enough and we have been let down very badly. Now Patrick is on antibiotics for a range of tick-borne diseases. I’m always just waiting for him to be better.’
Passed disease to her teenage daughter
MIRIAM Connor, 57, has had Lyme disease for more than two decades, and believes she passed it on to her daughter. Grace, 19, developed a rash, a temperature and tremors when she was seven, and Mrs Connor had her tested for Lyme within NHS Grampian. The results were negative, but Grace’s health continued to deteriorate and in January 2017 Mrs Connor requested another NHS test be carried out. Again, the results were negative. However, in November last year, a private clinic in Germany tested her positive for Lyme. Today, Grace is almost completely bedridden and Mrs Connor is calling for better NHS testing of the disease. She said: ‘My daughter has no memory of what it is like to not be nauseous, and today suffers from blackouts when she stands. She is very bright but she suffers from such bad brain fog now that she can’t follow a basic plot in a book. She relies on a wheelchair and has been more or less bed-bound for three years. The NHS tests are not good enough – she should have been diagnosed years ago.’
‘These children don’t deserve this’
JENNIFER Lumsden, 48, from Gourock, Renfrewshire, also believes she passed on Lyme disease to her daughter. She explained how her daughter Isla, 14, fell ill last Christmas, and when recognising her symptoms, requested she be tested. She said: ‘I asked for an NHS Lyme test, but it came back negative.
‘When we pushed for more tests, the doctors were horrible and some even said it was in our heads.’ Mrs Lumsden had private tests done by the Armin Labs clinic in Germany earlier this year. Isla came back positive for Lyme. Mrs Lumsden said: ‘We need the NHS to recognise these results and help us. She is now suffering from terrible anxiety and depression and has been off school since August 16. I feel the NHS has completely turned its back on her. It is unacceptable, we need better testing here. These children don’t deserve this.’