Five GPs missed the deadly reason my daughter, 6, kept falling over – we were sent home with paracetamol
A MUM claims her daughter was dismissed by five different doctors before being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Little Evie Maw had been falling over, vomiting and had headaches for 18 months but was repeatedly “sent away with paracetamol”.
The six-year-old’s condition continued to worsen until five days after her final GP appointment when she was rushed to Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
There, she had emergency surgery to remove a tumour her parents described as “the size of an orange”.
Mum Claire, from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, said her “world has been ripped apart”.
Evie first started experiencing symptoms in 2022.
She was very tired, throwing up several times a week and had intense headaches that would last for long periods.
Claire took her daughter to Ancora Medical Practice but claims she was branded a “paranoid mother”.
She alleges it was also suggested that Evie could be lying about how severe her condition was as “no child gets headaches every single day”.
The practice declined to comment due to confidentiality rules.
But the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board said it “would welcome the opportunity to speak directly with her family”.
Despite seeing “doctor after doctor”, Claire said she was told to take Evie to the optician for an eye test and to keep a headache diary and give her paracetamol.
“Nobody believed us,” she told the BBC. “We were called paranoid parents, but she just got worse and worse.”
Speaking to GrimsbyLive, her dad Karl added: “She’d gone from being bubbly, laughing, the most sociable girl. Then, she didn’t want to play, she didn’t want to talk.
“You watch your kids grow up but we were watching our daughter go backwards.”
Evie’s headaches and nausea soon became a daily occurrence, and she was so tired that she would fall asleep as soon as she got in the car on the way home from school, it is said.
“She just wasn’t herself,” Claire explained.
“It was like life was passing her by and she didn’t want to join in. She was just fading.”
‘Trust your instinct’
Evie began to lose her balance and, on November 7, she fell down the stairs.
Claire took her to the GP the following day but was yet again turned away, it is alleged.
Days later, Evie woke up in floods of tears and unable to move her head.
She visited A&E, and a scan revealed the cause of her problems so she was transferred to Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
“Doctors told us that our daughter had a huge mass on her brain and that an ambulance was waiting for her outside,” Claire said.
On November 12, Evie had a 10-hour operation to remove the tumour, and has since had two further procedures.
The family are now “in limbo” waiting to find out if it was cancerous and whether she needs any further treatment.
Claire and Karl hope by sharing their story, they can prevent other families from going through the same ordeal.
They are urging parents to be alert for symptoms of a brain tumour – which include headaches, feeling sick and balance problems – and to push for tests to be done.
“I know my baby inside out and I knew there was something wrong with her but nobody would listen to me,” Claire said.
“If there’s one thing I can take away from this, it’s [that you should] trust your mother’s instinct.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help support the family.
A spokesperson for the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, which oversees GP surgeries in the region, said: “We would like to send our best wishes to Evie as she recovers from her operation.”
Symptoms of a brain tumour in children
BRAIN tumours can present in similar ways to many other childhood illnesses, making them often difficult to spot.
But there are some telltale signs to look out for.
If you notice any of the following in your child, make an appointment with your GP:
- Headaches
- Feeling or being sick
- Seizures (fits)
- Problems with their eyes or vision
- Problems with their strength, balance or coordination
- Changes in their behaviour
- Problems with their posture
- Delayed or stopped puberty
- Your baby’s head measures larger than it should
Symptoms vary child to child, and depending on where the tumour is in the brain.
Not all brain tumours are cancerous, but it is important to get them checked out as even benign tumours can be dangerous.
Source: Cancer Research UK