Girl, five, 'died from appendicitis after hospital medics wrote off "burning" ...

A five-year-old girl who said her tummy 'felt like it was on fire' was misdiagnosed as having a stomach bug but died from appendicitis - minutes after telling her father she loved him, an inquest heard.  

Elspeth Moore had told doctors from Southampton Children's Hospital of a burning pain in her stomach but this was written off as a common infection.

Her parents took her home without being given advice on how to monitor her symptoms and she tragically died in her bed several days later as her worried father lay next to her. 

In a heartbreaking account of the night his daughter died last July, Elspeth's devastated father recalled how, ten minutes after she said 'I love you daddy', he watched her eyes roll up and her head flop back. 

Steven Moore said: 'I stayed up, went into Elspeth's room every half hour to check on her. At about 11pm I went in and she was still awake.

'I said "I'm going to stay in here with you", and lay down on the floor next to her. I said "love you" and she said "love you daddy".

'It can only have been five or ten minutes later, I heard her making a weird noise, like something was catching in her throat.

'I said "what's that noise all about Elspeth, that doesn't sound right." She didn't respond.

'I said "do you want to sit up darling." I sat her up, at which point her head just flopped back and her eyes rolled up.'

The inquest was told that despite being diagnosed as having viral gastroenteritis, Elspeth was actually suffering from appendicitis which developed into peritonitis and sepsis.

Although the coroner found that the misdiagnosis was reasonable in the circumstances, he did say the hospital should have advised her parents better when they allowed them to take her home.

The inquest heard Elspeth had been sent home from school on July 2 last year, following a bout of diarrhoea, and her parents rushed her to hospital after her GP said she was dehydrated and should be put on an IV drip.

Doctors at Southampton Children's Hospital, Hants, did not put her on a drip, but instead took her observations, finding she had a fever of 38.3C and an increased heart rate.

They set up a 'fluid challenge' whereby her parents gave her 5ml of water every five minutes for two hours to see if she could 'keep it down'.

Because Elspeth's parents asked to leave the hospital and continue the fluid challenge at home, a second set of observations were not done.

Elspeth's parents, who said they were not aware of a need for second observations that would rule out sepsis and appendicitis, asked to take the little girl home to continue the fluid challenge as it was past her bed time.

The inquest

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