Girl, 3, dies of meningitis after bungling doctor misdignoses killer illness as FLU

A heartbroken mother has told how her three-year-old daughter died from meningitis – after a bungling GP misdiagnosed the killer disease as FLU.

Chloe Cain had been throwing up for days and had been completely unable to walk when her mother Tara, 29, rushed her to the doctor on March 24.

After spending 20 minutes with the child, Tara claims the GP concluded Chloe just had a bug and prescribed pain killers.

But the following night the youngster suffered a massive seizure at home and was taken by ambulance to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.

After a series of tests over the next couple of days, Tara was given the crushing news that Chloe had cryptococcal meningitis.

Just one week later on April 4 her life support machine was switched off – after the killer bug took grip of the youngster’s tiny body.

Furious Tara, from Nottingham, slammed the GP who wrongly diagnosed her daughter.

She said: “I am fuming at the way they shrugged off what I was saying and said it was flu.

“They just sent me on my way with Ibuprofen and paracetamol.

“If they had done their jobs correctly then it might’ve been sorted out by tackling it sooner.

“They just gave me no support whatsoever.

“They wanted to take a urine sample to get to the bottom of it, but because she kept throwing up the water they just stopped trying.

“When she was finally taken in she was attached to a ventilator to help her breathe and they diagnosed her with meningitis. I was heartbroken.

“I was begging for her to get better. It was killing me.

“I really was 50/50 as to whether she was going to live or not.

“It was always my worst fear that she would get meningitis as my cousin’s baby had it and it took him a long time to recover.

“So I always prayed this wouldn’t happen to my daughter.”

Tara is now desperate to raise awareness of the condition as her daughter did not show any of the normal symptoms of meningitis such as a rash or stiff neck.

She will be doing a parachute jump next month to raise money for The Meningitis Trust.

Chloe’s will have a small funeral with only a few friends and family, which will be held next Wednesday.

Paying tribute to her daughter, Tara added: “She loved Tinkerbell and Fireman Sam, and loved dancing and playing down the park.

“My fondest memory of her was when she would wake up at 3am asking to go to nursery.

“Sometimes I would be downstairs in the early hours of the morning unable to sleep and Chloe would come bouncing down the stairs asking to go to nursery.

“She just loved going there. Some kids would kick and scream when they were dropped off at school, but not Chloe, she would have lived there if she could.”