Andrew Robinson
A GRIEVING mother has criticised a Yorkshire hospital where staff repeatedly failed to diagnose a brain tumour that killed her six-year-old son.
Vicky Ringer is furious that her son Levi's condition was not diagnosed until six weeks before he died and believes he would be alive today had the warning signs been spotted earlier.
A brain scan finally picked up the growth on July 20 – seven months after he began complaining of headaches and dizziness.
The 34-year-old mother, from Wakefield, says she took her son to a consultant paediatrician five times complaining of headaches, but it was only when she demanded a brain scan that doctors realised he had a tumour.
Levi, who died on August 29, had had problems with eating since birth but it was not until December 2005 that he began having severe headaches.
Miss Ringer, a drama teacher, first took him to his paediatric consultant at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield in January complaining that he was unwell.
A consultant said his headaches were probably because of his eating problems and constipation.
But his condition failed to improve and in March Levi had such a bad headache that his mother rushed him to hospital, where he was kept overnight and then released with medication for migraines. Miss Ringer took her son to her GP with symptoms of dizziness and a sore neck but was told he was suffering from a stiff neck.
His condition failed to improve and he continued having severe headaches and he became withdrawn and unhappy, often waking in the night to be sick. She returned to the hospital in May and demanded a scan.
At an appointment with a dietician, Miss Ringer was told Levi's problems were "behavioural" and he would need to see a psychiatrist.
She returned to the hospital and demanded a scan only to be told that there was a three-month wait.
She insisted he have one sooner and he was finally given a CT scan on July 20 when hospital staff realised Levi had fluid in his brain that wasn't draining away.
Miss Ringer, a single mother, said: "Four hours after the scan at Pinderfields they called me and told me to rush straight back there.
"They sat me down and told me they suspected a brain tumour was blocking the fluid from draining out of Levi's brain. My whole world fell apart.
"After all this time we knew what was wrong."
Levi was taken to Leeds General Infirmary where he was immediately given another CT scan and an MRI scan which revealed a lollipop-sized tumour spreading down his brain stem
Surgery took place the next day but his condition deteriorated and his family had to make the decision to switch off his life-support machine.
"I said to him, crying: 'It's OK, you can go now baby.' I didn't want him to suffer any more."
She plans to make a complaint about the hospital and GPs, saying: "They let my gorgeous little boy down. I don't want this to happen to anyone else.
"If they had noticed his symptoms and recognised what was wrong earlier, he may be alive today."
The chief nurse for the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Tracey McErlain-Burn, said: "We would like to express our sincere sympathy to the family of Levi, and our heart goes out to them at this very sad and difficult time.
"Due to patient confidentiality it is inappropriate to discuss details of our patients in public. However we have contacted the family and offered to meet with them to openly discuss all of their concerns."
andrew.robinson@ypn.co.uk