Little girl slowly dies of cancer due to misdiagnosis
The hospital decided that the little girl’s stomach pains were due to digestive problems. Doctors did not want to hear that there were other symptoms.
Just a few weeks before her death, 3-year-old Iof from the UK was a happy, cheerful, groovy child, a fidget girl.
In early June of this year, Iof began to complain of stomach pains. Her mother, Eilis Flanagan, immediately showed the child to the doctor. But the hospital assured: the child has normal constipation, there is nothing to worry about.
The pain did not subside, and Mrs. Flanagan again brought her daughter to the reception.
The diagnosis was the same. The girl was advised to move more, go to the sports section. Although Ayof was already a mobile child, she even went in for equestrian sports.
Mrs. Flanagan felt that things were much more serious. For three weeks, the mother showed her daughter to doctors 11 times, seeking a thorough examination. The girl began to lose weight, and then the doctors decided that Eilish was simply not feeding the baby well.
The pain began to spread throughout the body. And when the parents found out that their daughter had cancer, the whole small body of Ayof already hurt. Large bumps grew in the pelvis and liver area, which blocked the intestines.
“In recent days, she was very scared because she lost a lot of weight and changed her appearance. But the daughter still fought with every cell of her body, ”says Ayof’s mother.
On July 7, five days after the doctors made the diagnosis, the girl’s heart stopped.
“I kept it because I knew something was wrong with my child. She died in my arms,” Eilish says.
The girl was diagnosed with germ cell cancer — cells that then turn into sperm or eggs.
When a baby develops in the womb, germ cells usually travel to the ovaries or scrotum. But sometimes they do not migrate to the right place and settle in other parts of the body, where they can develop into a tumor.
Most often, malignant tumors appear in the lower part of the spine, in the brain, chest or abdomen. Such tumors are rare, germ cell cancer is about 3% of all childhood cancers. 93% of children with this diagnosis survive. Germ cell tumors respond well to chemotherapy, but in the case of Iof it was already too late.
“My daughter was not even given a chance to fight the disease,” says Eilish.
Symptoms depend on where the tumor develops. Usually there is a lump that can be felt. The tumor can press on neighboring organs, causing pain, on the bladder, leading to frequent urination.
The tumor and part of the organs affected by the disease were donated by the girl’s parents for the study of this rare type of cancer.
“Her death should not be in vain,” says Ayof’s mother.
Mrs. Flanagan opened the Bubble Charitable Foundation — named after the pony her daughter loved so much. The Foundation will help children with the same diagnosis as Ayof.
