10-year-old girl died after doctors cut away 17% of her body
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Family handout/Halfpoint Images/Getty
A 10-year-old girl tragically lost her life after doctors cut away 17 percent of her body following a Strep A diagnosis.
Dermot and Lily Murphy lost their daughter Vivienne in March 2019, just two weeks after she started feeling unwell with a sore throat.
The young girl was picked up early from school on Valentine's Day 2019 after she complained of feeling unwell.
Later that afternoon, things escalated as Vivienne developed a sore throat, before coming out with a rash.
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The next five days saw Vivienne's condition deteriorate, though three separate GPs told her worried parents that it was just a viral illness.
"We realised she was still getting worse, and the rash was really angry looking," Dermot told RTÉ’s This Week programme.
"By the evening, she had pain and we noticed that her right leg started swelling at the knee. We were told this could still be a flu virus, and we explained about the knee, and said the child couldn’t stand at all."
It became clear that Vivienne needed urgent medical help, so Dermot drove her to Cork University Hospital.
Doctors ordered blood tests after noticing the girl had a black mark on her leg, with a nurse telling Dermot and Lily their daughter was seriously ill after receiving the results.
The black mark indicated Vivienne contracted necrotising fasciitis, a rare bacterial infection that can spread through the body quickly and be fatal.
"We [were told] at that stage the black mark meant Vivienne had sepsis and was going into shock," Lily recalled.
Vivienne's parents were given the devastating news that the only way to save her was to amputate her leg, with that surgery being carried out in Dublin.
After the operation, Dermot and Lily were met by the surgeon, who told them some earth shattering news.
"The words he told us were shocking," Dermot recalled.
"He said I think I have stopped the disease from spreading, but I had to cut away 17 percent of your daughter’s body. Seventeen percent is burned into my brain."
Doctors explained that the black mark started out as Strep-A, before leading on to sepsis and then necrotising fasciitis.
The stress of fighting the disease had caused Vivienne to go into cardiac arrest, and later suffered brain damage, with medics declaring the schoolgirl brain dead.
A subsequent coroner's report reached a verdict of death by medical misadventure, with Rachael O’Shaughnessy, Partner with HOMS Assist, saying lessons must be learned in relation to the identification and treatment of Strep A and highlighted the need for a paediatric ICU outside of Dublin.