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Girl dies after docs think brain tumour is ADHD

Published: 28 Feb 13 17:37 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/46474/20130228/

An 8-year-old girl is dead after doctors in southern Sweden failed to diagnose her brain tumour, believing her symptoms may have been related to her ADHD medications.

Doctors failed to detect the girl's brain tumour despite extensive tests and treatments carried out at the at the Kalmar County hospital, the local Barometern newspaper reported.

The girl first sought treatment in 2007 for impaired motion and delayed development, leading doctors to diagnose her with ADHD.

In 2011, she began receiving psychiatric care and prescribed medicine. Not long after, she complained of severe headaches and vomiting, which doctors believed were side effects of the medication.

The girl's condition worsened, and in January 2012 she was admitted to the emergency room in Kalmar and later transported more than 200 kilometres to Linköping University Hospital.

She died the following day during an operation which revealed she had been suffering from a haemorrhaging brain tumour.

An internal investigation carried out by the Kalmar County Council revealed no single doctor had a clear, overarching picture of the girl's condition, Barometern reported.

The incident has since been reported to Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) in accordance with Sweden's Lex Maria laws, the informal name for regulations governing the reporting of injuries or incidents in the Swedish health care system.

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18:56 February 28, 2013 by caitnor
I don't understand this. Delayed motion can always have a neurological orgin. How could and MRI have missed a brain tumor? Was the tumor hidden somehow? It sounds like the found it eventually otherwise why would they have been operating? Horrible. Parents/people in Sweden have got to learn basics about medicine, physiology and self/child advocacy!
19:18 February 28, 2013 by Mxzf
"An internal investigation carried out by the Kalmar County Council revealed no single doctor had a clear, overarching picture of the girl's condition, Barometern reported."

This.

Always getting a new doctor every time I need to see one. And none of them read my journal beforehand.
00:06 March 1, 2013 by micvau
OMG, My heart goes out to the parents. It seems to me that doctors failed to take this seriously until it was too late. Unfortunitely doctors nowadays are getting away with too much. This is seemingly becoming the only profession when a person can truely get away with murder. Thery should enforce laws and restrictions on who should be allowed to become a doctor. Sometimes i feel that a person is better of going to a Vet.
01:42 March 1, 2013 by Frank_W
Any "old school" doctor will tell you most diagnosis comes from familiarity with the patient - from watching development and so-on. A different doctor each time - regardless of how good the high tech support behind him is - will miss the obvious more often than the one without.

Doubt the child ever had an MRI - ADHD is a much less complicated diagnosis to lay on a mother that already thinks she is doing something wrong.

Any doctor familiar with that child from day one would have realized ADHD was not an option and looked for something else.

So who is wrong? the doctor or the system he/she has to work within.
05:37 March 1, 2013 by Russ Cobleigh
the quality of medicine in sweden is crap. Because of the no-fault insurance, they only get a slap on the hand when they screw up! Before my heart valve operation, I was told i had asthma and then that nothing was wrong with me and that it was all in my head.
08:12 March 1, 2013 by muscle
Its very sad. but i guess parents need to be taught a bit as well as in not to change doctors frequently. Many times, the doctors diagnose the problem after various trials! It is imperative that the same doctor to be consulted so he or she can look into other options!
11:47 March 1, 2013 by what would thomas paine do
Re #6 - These poor parents most likely had NO choice whatsoever in who saw their child. None of us knows what they've been through.

Otherwise, this is very much a manmade tragedy, most likely directly linked to cost-saving (not life-saving) protocols by soulless state officials and their slavish minions.

Wake-up! You or someone dear to you is NEXT. The state will do nothing until the public (YOU) make very clear that this behavior is NOT acceptable.
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