Mum ‘had to argue’ for GP appointment before daughter’s cancer diagnosis

Kelly Clarkson (37) saw six doctors and five nurses over 28 months with her daughter, Megan, aged two, who had developed a bad cough in September 2016.

At one point the tot’s respiratory rate increased to double the normal level, and she began to lose weight, but doctors thought it was asthma.

Ms Clarkson, from Kirkcaldy, pushed to get GP appointments after the little girl suffered from breathing difficulties, but says she had to “argue my case” with nurses.

Tragically, Megan died on January 2 this year, less than a month after being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer.

Ms Clarkson, who has a son, Myles, aged five, wants recommendations made two years ago by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), which include funding for mandatory child health training for all general practice trainees, to be implemented.

She says she eventually saw a GP after arguing with a nurse practitioner who had called her back to “challenge” her request.

The doctor immediately referred Megan to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, where an X-ray showed a “white out” lung, often a sign of pneumonia.

The following day, December 12, Megan was taken to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.

The family were given the heartbreaking news that Megan was suffering from type three Pleuropulmonary Blastoma - a rare and aggressive form of lung cancer found in children.

Megan died three weeks later.

She was operated on and had her whole right lung removed, but suffered a major bleed and cardiac arrest and died just after midnight on January 2.

Ms Clarkson said: “Megan was getting progressively worse – I told the nurse but even when I said that I still had to argue over and over.

“I make the point in my complaint letter that they wanted to have a telephone consultation about a two-year-old girl with breathing difficulties.

“Why did they not just say ‘OK let’s get you in to see a doctor’?

“Instead, I had to argue my case, I had to turn into a horrible person and I came off the phone shaking.

“When I went into the doctor’s surgery I felt apprehensive.”

She has met NHS Fife and local MSP David Torrance, who has written to Health Secretary Jeane Freeman on her behalf.

Ms Clarkson, who has a son, Myles, aged five, says she was “fobbed off” numerous times by GPs at her local medical practice over a two-year period, with no recommendation of an X-ray.

The mum added: “Looking back I just think - why did I have to see so many people before I saw a doctor about a two-year old girl with breathing difficulties?

“I understand nurse practitioners are trained but sometimes for a bit of reassurance as a parent it would be good to see a GP.

“I felt judged because I work - you’re having to phone in every day for these appointments at 8.30am and it takes forever to get through.

“You can be phoning 40 to 50 times just to get to see a doctor or to get an emergency appointment.

“You eventually get through to a receptionist, who takes down the details but they pass it on to a triage nurse and my heart sinks when I hear that.

“Then the nurse phoned and on that day I was adamant that I wanted to see a doctor as things had been going on long enough with my daughter.

“They don’t take young people in these situations seriously and they don’t take anything that is not the most obvious answer seriously.”

NHS Fife declined to comment.