Girl died during operation she did not need

Jul 9 2009 The Journal

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD died during surgery she didn’t need to remove her appendix.

Doctors failed to spot that Paige Young was suffering from a rare heart condition, and diagnosed her with suspected appendicitis instead.

The youngster from Cramlington, Northumberland, suffered a heart attack under the strain of an unnecessary procedure to remove her appendix, which they found was in fact healthy.

The first time her heart stopped, doctors at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) managed to bring her back to life. But her heart was so weak, she suffered cardiac arrest a second time, and there was nothing that could be done to save her.

At an inquest yesterday, her devastated mum Siobhan Smith heard how there was a chance Paige could have survived her heart condition if she had not undergone surgery.

The heartbroken 26-year-old said she will forever be tortured wondering if Paige would still be with her if her illness had been diagnosed.

“We are just upset and angry,” said Siobhan, who was supported at the harrowing inquest by a group of family members including husband Scott, mum Amanda Laughlin, and grandma Doreen Mouzon – who were all wearing pink in honour of Paige’s favourite colour.

Siobhan said: “They should have done more to treat the symptoms as they occurred, not just focusing on going down one path. If they had diagnosed her, she could have had a heart transplant and then none of this would have happened.”

Paige fell ill just before Christmas last year, suffering from sickness and diarrhoea.

She was taken to the RVI where doctors at first thought she was suffering from a tummy bug. She was treated for dehydration and discharged on Christmas Eve. But she took a turn for the worse and was taken back to hospital, still suffering from the same sickness symptoms a week after she was first admitted. She was diagnosed with suspected appendicitis and rushed into the operating theatre on Boxing Day evening.

But the coroner’s court heard yesterday how none of the doctors had any idea the symptoms she was suffering were caused by a heart problem, and not a stomach condition.

Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, coroner David Mitford said Paige was suffering from a rare heart condition called myocarditis, which is caused by a virus.

It is potentially fatal, but patients can survive, especially if it is caught early enough for a heart transplant to take place.

But Paige’s condition was not diagnosed in time to stop surgeons performing an unnecessary procedure, which her weakened heart could not handle.

Mr Mitford said: “Had it not been that the operation had gone ahead, her death might not have arisen at that moment. It is not however the cause of her death.

“She died of natural causes, but the timing of her death may have been brought about by the appendectomy.”

Siobhan feels she has been robbed of justice for her daughter, and fears she will never be able to rest in peace.

“I never really looked at the doctors throughout the inquest,” she said. “When they started to speak I started to feel so angry at some of the things they were saying. The happy memories will always be there, but this does overshadow it.”

It has been a rollercoaster of emotions for Siobhan since Paige’s death, as her baby sister, Paighton-Paige, was born just two months after she died.

Haunted by Paige’s ordeal, Siobhan could not face staying in hospital any longer than necessary, and discharged herself the day after she gave birth.

“Paighton looks just like Paige, so I think of her every time I look at her,” she said.

“It’s hard because Paige was looking forward to her being born so much.

“She was always counting down the days.”

Dr Ian Willetts performed the surgery, and he told the coroner’s court how he discovered during the operation that Paige had inflamed lymph nodes, called mesenteric adenitis, which indicated she had an infection.

But he explained how rare it is for this to mean she had a heart condition, and how shocked the medics were when her heart suddenly stopped.

He said: “I thought she was an ill child who had something going on in her tummy to make her unwell, and the most likely cause was appendicitis.

“All the children I have seen with mesenteric adenitis, it goes away spontaneously like gastroenteritis.

“I have never experienced a child in cardiac arrest in an appendectomy.

“It does not follow that having found this with the lymph nodes that we would think she had a problem with the heart.”

Pathologist Dr Fraser Charlton, who carried out the post-mortem, said: “I think it would be very hard to detect, it is very rare.”