Pneumonia and GP failing my little girl

I've learnt a valuable lesson last month... Trust your instinct and not GPs who fob everything off as viral... 

On 4th January SY developed a fever with no other obvious symptoms. On 6th January I took her to Queen Marys urgent care with a urine sample which was clear and was told it was viral and to keep giving her paracetamol and ibuprofen for the fever. She continued to worsen, refusing to eat or play/stand/walk and spending most of the day very distressed on my lap, complaining of tummy ache (we now know she meant chest), with a fever over 40 degrees celcius. On 10th January my husband took her to Princess Royal University A&E. Initially they were going to take bloods to test but for whatever reason the GP at A&E decided not to do these and again said it was viral. My husband had remarked that her breathing had been erratic and fast and she had had a very high fever for over a week and was complaining of tummy and arm ache. At this point I see this as a failing as the bloods would have shown she had a severe infection. By 13th January her condition had worsened and I took her to see our GP at who said she had an ear infection and prescribed amoxicillin. By this point my daughter had been ill with an extremely high fever for 9 days. 2 days later I decided to take her back to the GP as the amoxicillin wasn't helping and her condition was still worsening and again the GP said it was an ear infection and prescribed erythromycin. I now know after speaking to the A&E consultant at the PRUH that the GP should have sent my daughter to A&E at this point after not eating, barely drinking and a high fever of 40 for 11 days. Luckily we decided not to wait the 3 days suggested by the GP to see if the erythromycin worked and took her back to PRUH A&E on 17th January. Initially they were concerned about Kawasaki disease due to the prolonged fever (something the GP should have been concerned about). Bloods were taken which showed extremely high inflammation markers and a severe infection and a chest X-ray showed she had pnuemonia and her lung had collapsed. She stayed overnight in A&E and was moved to Kings College hospital on 18th and a chest drain was inserted on 19th. She was given IV antibiotics, morphine, paracetamol and ibuprofen whilst in hospital. 800mls of pus was drained off her chest on the first day, 350mls on the second and a further 350mls on the third. On 25th January her chest drain was finally removed and she was discharged with 4 days worth of clindomycin and 4 weeks of co-amoxiclav and sodium feredetate for anaemia. By the time she came home she hadn't eaten for 3 weeks, was skeletally thin, and couldn't stand or walk due to not standing for weeks as she had been so ill. In all she was ill for almost a month with repeated opportunities for both A&E and GPs to spot she was seriously ill. A high fever longer than 7 days should never have been dismissed by a&e or the GP and should have been investigated and she may not have been so ill and required the chest drain. Her chest was listened to multiple times yet no one picked up a collapsed lung. We had 3 A&E visits and 2 GP visits before anyone investigated properly. The girl next to my daughter in ICU when she was having her chest drain inserted also had pneumonia and had been ventilated and resuscitated. That could have been my child had I not ignored the advice of GPs. 

To say January was a difficult month is an understatement. My husband had to stay in hospital with SY as I couldn't due to breastfeeding Daisy, which was upsetting for big me and SY. Packing her off screaming in an ambulance to Kings from the PRUH is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, watching her scream mummy mummy mummy over and over and over. It makes me so mad that we had so many A&E and GP trips and no one spotted how ill she was. All that suffering and pain she endured could have been minimised by a simple blood test and her pnuemonia being picked up earlier. 

Thankfully kids bounce back quickly. Since coming out of hospital she's eating like a HORSE, typically 2-3 boiled eggs and a slice of bread each morning for breakfast, plus 10-15 meatballs, potato and veg for lunch and dinner (she just wants BEEF BEEF BEEF!). She's slowly regained strength in her legs and can walk fine, but has developed a phobia of walking down stairs because she thinks she's going to fall. Potty training has gone backwards thanks to horrendous diorreah due to the antibiotics and she's waking 3-4 times a night screaming, only settling for me and not daddy. The diorreah gave her hideous nappy rash and the antibiotics gave her the worst mouth ulcers I've ever seen in my life. It's been exhausting and stressful, but we're on the up. I pray that we never ever have to go through anything so serious ever again.