Mother’s warning after girl, 7, sent home from school with ‘sniffles’ dies next day

A mum whose seven-year-old daughter died a day after being sent home from school with ‘the sniffles’ has written a book about the ordeal to ‘offer a glimmer of hope’ to other grieving parents.

Clare Louise, 54, lost her daughter, Annaliese, in the summer of 2018. After waking up with a cold, she remained ‘quite lethargic’ and complained of pain in her hip when picked up early from school the following day.

She took Annaliese to her GP and the hospital, where she was discharged after having tests, but the following day she was ‘crying with pain’ and had diarrhoea and ‘mottled’ thighs.

Annaliese was taken back to hospital when her condition deteriorated, arriving at 10pm, but by 1pm she was dead.

Clare, a co-founder of a business communications consultancy who lives in the Home Counties with her husband, Matt, 52, and their two adopted sons, described feeling as though she had ‘failed’ when it turned out Annaliese had iGAS, which ‘could have been treated with antibiotics’.

According to the NHS, invasive group A streptococcal disease is a serious strep A infection where the bacteria are isolated from a normally sterile body site, such as the blood.

Now, Clare has written a book, called And Always Annaliese to help others with grief and loss, adding that she ‘is still a part of (her) family and always will (be)’.

In summer 2018, Annaliese woke up ‘with a bit of a cold and the sniffles’, but Clare recalls ‘it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary’.

She went on: ‘She woke up with a bit of a cold and the sniffles, but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. She went to bed early and the next day she said she felt a bit better, so she got up and went to school.

‘She was still under the weather, and at lunchtime I got a call from the school saying she was very distressed, and when I picked her up, she was quite lethargic.

‘Her temperature was high, and she was sleeping on the sofa, and I was just keeping an eye on her really.

‘She said her leg was really hurting, so I began to get concerned.’

So, Clare dialled 111 and was told she should take Annaliese to her GP.

She said: ‘I took her to the GP at about five in the afternoon and she was really quiet – I remember she was curled up on the waiting room chairs.

‘They recommended that I take her to the hospital – near us, there is a day ward and we popped her there. They took a scan of her hip and took her bloods and she was discharged.

‘But it was getting worse – she walked into the hospital but was wheeled out in a wheelchair.’

At that point, Clare was told that her daughter’s aches and pains were likely because of a cold.

She said: ‘I was concerned, but not really really worried.’

But, in the middle of the night, Annaliese began ‘crying with pain’ and woke up with diarrhoea.

Clare said: ‘She was still quite tired too, I remember putting her in front of the TV to watch her favourite film, Cinderella.

‘I remember taking her trousers down when she went to the toilet and her thighs were all mottled – at that point I rang the hospital straight away.’

The hospital asked if Clare could bring Annaliese in, and her condition quickly worsened. She said: ‘She was in the hospital at 10 o’clock and she died at one in the afternoon.

‘As it turned out, she had iGAS (Invasive group A streptococcal disease) which had turned into sepsis. It could have been treated with antibiotics but it wasn’t picked up on – as a mum, I felt like I failed.’

Clare found the grieving process very difficult at first.

She said: ‘I felt quite isolated to begin with – a lot of people didn’t know what to say because losing a child isn’t something a lot of people go through. I felt like no-one really understood what I was going through.

‘I’ve always been a confident person, but I can remember going out and trying not to make eye contact and dread seeing someone I knew in case they brought it up.

‘It was also really hard for everyone in the family, like my son, who was only about five at the time, and could not understand what had happened to his sister.’

But Clare and her family slowly began to realise that ‘grief doesn’t go away’ and how to manage day-to-day life.

‘Now, I want to share our story, offer a glimmer of hope, because she is very much still a part of the family,’ she added.

‘The first 18 months to two years was really tough, and then very gradually, there started to be glimpses of blue sky, where you might have a moment where something makes you laugh, or you have a moment of peacefulness.

‘I think as time goes on, the sky becomes a bit bigger and a bit clearer. But I of course still get upset and have days where I let myself cry and cry.’

The Compassionate Friends, a charity supporting bereaved parents and their families, helped Clare get back on her feet and ‘find her tribe’.

In October 2021, Clare wanted to channel her emotions into writing a book to help others with grief.

She explained: ‘I signed up to a three-month course called ‘Write That Book’ which teaches you how to write, publish and sell your book.

‘It helped me get the bones of the story together, and I found writing it really easy.

‘I structured it in a way that was very emotional and personal, but then it also has practical advice to help support, not only those who are grieving themselves but also their support network.

‘Each chapter is about a different aspect of grief whether it be dealing with an inquest, the funeral, relationships.

‘I decided to call it And Always Annaliese because I sign every card with that – she is still a part of our family and always will be.’

Clare’s book is available on Amazon here.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.