Incorrect diagnosis 'may have cost life of girl, 16'

A SCHOOLGIRL who died after being misdiagnosed with swine flu might have been saved if doctors had recognised her tonsilitis in time, an inquest heard.

Charlotte Hartey, 16, died in July last year from complications arising from tonsilitis after being diagnosed with swine flu over the phone by a GP and prescribed the anti-viral drug Tamiflu.

The teenager, from Bronygarth near Oswestry, Shropshire, died in hospital on July 31 after the rare bacteria which caused her tonsil infection travelled through her body, leading to her developing bronchial pneumonia.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

An inquest into her death at Shrewsbury Magistrates' Court yesterday heard she was admitted to hospital on July 29 – seven days after being prescribed Tamiflu – when blood tests showed an alarmingly high white blood cell count, indicating a serious infection.

Pathologist Kenneth Scott, who conducted a post-mortem examination, told the inquest he believed it was unlikely she could have been saved after her admission to hospital but said she may have lived if tonsilitis had been diagnosed initially.

He said: "She died from her lung condition because she couldn't breathe any more. She had not enough lung function left to survive.

"I think the chain started when she got tonsilitis... hat is when it all began."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Dr Scott told the inquest that in the days leading up to her death Charlotte was probably "more ill than she looked".

"She was an extremely sick girl when she was admitted (to hospital). She was much sicker than she appeared.

"Young people can look less ill than they are and I think that's what happened here. She didn't look moribund or as though she was dying, but in fact she was."

He told the hearing the bacterial infection which led to Charlotte's death was "highly, highly, highly unusual" and one he had never come across before.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It was his opinion that "the outcome could have been different" if the teenager had been prescribed the correct antibiotic medication at the outset, rather than Tamiflu, which does not fight infections.

"I would concur with Mr Hartey's (Charlotte's father) view that if the tonsilitis had been diagnosed on July 22 and the appropriate antibiotics given and taken in the correct dosage, there could have been a possibility that the outcome could have been different."

Michael Arthur, the GP who prescribed Tamiflu, told the inquest he conducted a consultation by phone in accordance with NHS guidelines at the time, when the swine flu virus was sweeping the UK.

The doctor said Charlotte's symptoms, which included a sore throat, runny nose and persistent cough, were "strongly suggestive" of a virus, rather than an infection.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"At that time swine flu was the most serious and most likely cause of flu-like symptoms and it was for this reason I suspected Charlotte had swine flu," he said.

"If there was anything to suggest that this was not a viral illness I would have asked the patient to come into the surgery.

"She didn't have any symptoms which made me think it wasn't a viral illness."

The inquest heard that two days after Tamiflu had been prescribed, Charlotte's mother Helen Hartey called doctors requesting a home visit for her daughter.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

GP David Campbell visited that day and told the court he agreed with the swine flu diagnosis but also noticed that Charlotte's throat was inflamed and prescribed a course of antibiotics.

The doctor visited Charlotte's home again on July 28, when he decided it would be "prudent" to take swabs and a blood sample for a full blood count analysis, which subsequently revealed the extent of her illness.

Both Dr Campbell and John Farrow, an ear nose and throat specialist at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, told the hearing they had no experience of the specific bacteria – arcanobacterium haemolyticum – which had infected Charlotte's body.

The inquest will resume again today.

Related topics: