Toxic Shock Kills Samantha, Four
A NORTHUMBERLAND girl died from “toxic shock” – a condition that kills just three people a year in the UK – an inquest was told.
For months the death of Samantha Mitchelson, who was found unconscious by her parents just hours after a doctor diagnosed the youngster with a chest infection, remained a mystery.
But an inquest has revealed that the four-year-old died from toxic shock syndrome when her cold developed into a serious bacterial infection.
The inquest was it would be difficult for a doctor to foresee such a rare reaction to a common condition.
And closing the inquest Northumberland Coroner Ian McCreath recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.
But Samantha’s parents, Graham and Lisa, still believe when their daughter was taken to the doctors, just hours before her death, she should have been referred to the nearby hospital.
And dad Graham said he is considering a complaint about her care to the Health Care Commission.
Graham, 36, said: “I still just feel like I could cry all of the time. She was such a daddy’s girl, perfect. You learn to live with it, you never get over it.
“I was told even if she’d been admitted to hospital she would probably have died, but she never got that chance. We took her to a doctor, I don’t know what else we could have done.”
The family, of Welbeck Road, Guide Post, Northumberland, found Samantha unconscious in November.
Just the night before they had taken Samantha to see doctor at an out-of-hours surgery, run by Northern Doctors Urgent Care, based at the Wansbeck Hospital site in Ashington.
A post-mortem examination concluded Samantha, a pupil at Mowbray First School, died from toxic shock syndrome.
Samantha leaves behind brothers and sisters Jessica, 10, Curtis, five, Rebecca, three, Ashleigh, one, and Corey, six months.
For Graham and Lisa the strain of the loss was too much for their marriage, and the couple have since split.
(c) 2008 The Journal – Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.