7-Year-Old Girl Dies After Doctor Mistakes Blood Clot In Heart For Stomach Bug

A 7-year-old girl in Wales died after a doctor mistakenly diagnosed the child with having a stomach bug, the family alleged. According to the parents, the girl was given medication, but days later, she died from a blood clot in her heart.

Isabellaann Battiscombe, from Cardiff, was unwell for about two weeks before her death.

"She was being sick and we thought she had a tummy bug. I took her to the doctors the next day and that doctor said it's a tummy bug, go home, give her some Calpol and maybe paracetamol," the child's mother, Janine, 40, told Wales Online. "She started being more unwell. She didn't want to get up, she even asked her daddy if he could pick her up to go to the toilet and I said there's something wrong here."

A few days later, a different doctor sent the girl to the University Hospital of Wales for a suspected chest infection. The girl slowly began to respond to the treatment given there. However, on Feb. 11, the family was informed the girl was being moved to another part of the hospital.

"The next minute I'm being called by my husband saying she's being taken to intensive care. They're shoving all these pipes in her everywhere and pumping different things into her," Janine said.

After arriving at the hospital, the parents were told the child was in critical condition.

"How did she get so ill? Then all of a sudden they said they might have to transfer her to Bristol to have an emergency operation for her heart because of the blood clot," she said, Wales Online reported.

The next day, the doctors said Isabellaann died.

"From start to finish, from going to the doctors to going to the hospital and when she died, I just don't understand why they took so long to diagnose her. We're just devastated," the family said, adding the autopsy report showed the cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.

"She was a happy, bubbly, funny little girl. Always with a smile on her face. She loved her school and she had a lot of friends. She was just the life and soul of everything... When she would walk into a room it'd light up. She was just a little angel. I just want her back," Janine said.