Girl’s cancer was wind, said doctor

A little girl’s leukaemia was misdiagnosed as trapped wind by a GP at a scandal-hit out-of-hours surgery, it emerged today.

Three-year-old Taylor Codling was taken to the weekend clinic by her father James when she turned yellow and her temperature hit 40ËšC (104ËšF). But after a two-minute check-up the doctor sent them to pick up a bottle of gripe water to ease her condition.

Taylor was no better two days later so she was taken to Ipswich Hospital where doctors diagnosed leukaemia. Mr Codling, from Hasketon, Suffolk, has now threatened to launch legal action against the service.

‘This mistake could have cost her her life,’ said the 32-year-old. ‘There is a big difference between having trapped wind and having leukaemia.’

The misdiagnosis was made by a foreign doctor working for Take Care Now – the same company which employed 67-year-old German locum Daniel Ubani. He accidentally killed 70-year-old patient David Gray, of Cambridgeshire, by giving him a lethal overdose of painkillers.

Last year TCN was stripped of its out-of-hours contract but the decision only came into effect from April 1 – a week after Taylor went to the surgery. Harmoni HS Ltd, which now runs the locum service for Suffolk, said the doctor in question had not worked for them since April 1.

Source: The Metro