A girl died from complications arising from tonsillitis after being misdiagnosed with swine flu over the phone by a GP, her father has claimed.

Charlotte Hartey, 16, of Oswestry, Shropshire, died in Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on 31 July.

A post-mortem test found she died of natural causes though her father Karl said the coroner told the family she died from blood poisoning.

The NHS has said it is reviewing her case.

Charlotte’s family said she was diagnosed over the phone by a local GP on 22 July and prescribed tamiflu.

But her condition worsened and she was admitted to hospital on 29 July. She died two days later.

Mr Hartey said: “Charlotte was misdiagnosed. She was diagnosed with swine flu over the phone and treated for something she didn’t have.

“She actually had tonsillitis and that led to her developing abscesses in her lungs and blood poisoning as the bacteria spread, which ultimately killed her.

“This was a death that shouldn’t have happened. No-one should die from tonsillitis in 2009.”

He criticised the NHS policy of diagnosing swine flu over the phone as a “dangerous game”.

Source: BBC News, 7th August 2009.

2 Year Old Dies of Meningitis After She Was Diagnosed With Swine Flu!

The parents of a two-year-old girl thought to have died from meningitis after they were told she was suffering from swine flu said yesterday that she had been “failed by the system”.

Georgia Keeling, from Norwich, died after being rushed to hospital on Tuesday. Her parents, Paul Sewell, 21, and Tasha Keeling, 22, said they contacted health services, including NHS Direct, the swine flu helpline and the emergency services, five times after their daughter first developed a temperature on Saturday.

The couple said that by Tuesday she had also developed a rash, bruising and had been sick, but their concerns that she might have meningitis were ignored.

They said that on two occasions they were told Georgia did not need to be admitted to hospital and after one 999 call, a paramedic arrived with Tamiflu and paracetamol. It was only after another 999 call an hour later, when her eyes had glazed over, that she was taken to hospital. Georgia suffered a heart attack and attempts to resuscitate her failed.

Speaking to a local paper, Sewell said: “I don’t feel like the paramedics did their job properly. She wasn’t given a chance, they had diagnosed her before even looking at herand came out ready to give her Tamiflu. She was failed by the system big time. I just want to know how come they didn’t take her into hospital straight away.

Source: The Guardian, 8th August 2009.