Home safe: Michelle Dyer with son Harvey after his ordeal
Hospital doctors failed to notice that five-week-old Harvey Flanagan had swine flu.
When it was eventually diagnosed at another hospital, they promised his parents they had learned their lesson from the baby’s brush with death.
Yet only days later, Stepping Hill Hospital also failed to diagnose three-year-old Lana Ameen with the swine flu that went on to kill her.
Yesterday, Harvey’s mother Michelle Dyer suggested that Lana had been doubly betrayed by the NHS.
The 24-year-old, whose son has fully recovered, backed Lana’s doctor father in his calls for under-fives to be routinely given the flu jab.
And, referring to the girl’s misdiagnosis, she said: ‘They had been warned [after Harvey’s case], but it happened again just two days after they’d given me assurances.
‘The vaccine costs just a few pounds, but treating a child in intensive care costs thousands. Harvey was critical for eight days, that must have cost £10,000. They’re trying to cut back and save money, but it’s costing them more in the long run.
‘I don’t think it should be down to the Government to decide whether children should have the flu vaccine at all – it should be up to parents. It’s terrible that previously healthy children like Lana can die.’
Harvey had been taken to the hospital, in Stockport, Greater Manchester, on December 14 on a GP’s advice after struggling to breathe, but was sent home with indigestion medicine. His condition hadn’t improved the next day, so his parents took him back – but again no one realised how seriously ill he was.
Swine flu tragedy: A £6 flu jab could have saved three-year-old Lana Ameen who had no underlying health problems when she caught the illness
Happy family: Lana's father Zana Ameen hit out and told David Cameron to think again about not offering the swine flu jab to under fives
On the third day they took him to Tameside Hospital, in Ashton-under-Lyne, where swine flu was suspected.
He then spent eight days in intensive care at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. On Christmas Eve, when Lana first fell ill, he was allowed home.
From yesterday's Daily Mail
Miss Dyer claims the head of nursing and midwifery at Stepping Hill assured her the chief executive had reminded A&E staff of the need for vigilance over possible cases. Yet in the early hours of Christmas Day, staff sent home Dr Ameen’s daughter. Lana had a fit later that day, and died on Boxing Day.
This week, Dr Ameen, a registrar, warned that his daughter had died for the sake of a £6 flu jab – for which under-fives are not eligible.
Accusing ministers of restricting the vaccine to save money, he urged them to make it available for youngsters.
Although Harvey would not have been eligible for the vaccine, which is not for children under six months, newborns are protected if their mother received the vaccine while pregnant. But Miss Dyer, a travel agent, says she was never offered it. She and her partner, car salesman Andrew Flanagan, 29, have now been told their three-year-old daughter Amelia can have the jab, however.
This week, experts backed calls for otherwise healthy under-fives to be vaccinated, as happened during last winter’s pandemic.
But the Government’s own medical advisers, who a year ago backed immunisation, continue to say it should be offered only to children with underlying health conditions.
Stepping Hill has insisted Lana received ‘appropriate and timely’ treatment. It has apologised to Harvey’s family and is investigating. It added that the head of nursing did not believe she had given assurances to his parents about extra vigilance for swine flu.
* Flu jabs could be given to under-fives this autumn as part of an overhaul of vaccination policy. Experts are investigating the impact and cost of giving jabs to healthy children and healthy over-50s.
The research is expected to be considered by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in time for changes next autumn.
If the committee’s advisers recommend an expansion of the seasonal flu programme, health ministers will accept that.