A 3-year-old died of a rare form of cancer after doctors diagnosed her with constipation.
She took her daughter to the doctor several times, but she claimed that doctors said it was due to constipation.
“I took her to see the GP or a consultant doctor 11 times in three weeks. She'd been in and out of hospital with different infections and problems but they kept telling us she had common child constipation,” she said this week.
According to the news outlet, Flanagan said she knew something was amiss in the diagnosis.
“I raised my concerns and she had pains in other areas of her body but the doctors never examined her,” she said, adding that the girl had a tumor on her backside that doctors didn’t investigate.
Elaborating on the cause of death, Flanagan said it was “completely unexpected” and described it as “a huge cardiac arrest.”
“I held her because I knew something was wrong with her. She died in my arms,” she said.
She also set up a website called “Aoife’s Bubbles.”
The page said, “Aoife’s Mum has decided to set up this charity to raise awareness and educate health care professionals on Germ Cell Cancer, a rare cancer but a very real one. The charity also wants to provide respite and joy for children with cancer and to provide for their families.”
Germ Cell Tumors
According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, “Germ cell tumors are growths that form from reproductive cells. Tumors may be cancerous or noncancerous. Most germ cell tumors that are cancerous occur as cancer of the testicles (testicular cancer) or cancer of the ovaries (ovarian cancer).”They can appear in various parts of the body.
Meanwhile, the tumors often “respond to treatment and many can be cured, even when diagnosed at a late stage.”