Daily Mail - 12.08.2019

V1 Page 25

END THE SEPSIS

SCANDAL

A GIRL of three died from

sepsis the day after she was

discharged from hospital with

a suspected stomach bug.

Harper Aitken was taken to hospi-

tal after developing a rash, a tem-

perature and a sore throat.

But after a couple of hours in A&E,

her symptoms began to improve and

doctors believed she merely had an

upset stomach.

The following afternoon, however, her

lips turned blue and her mother, Lori

Mullen, 34, took her to see their GP.

However, Harper was rushed back to

hospital by ambulance after collapsing

in the surgery waiting room. She died

just over two hours later.

‘She woke up with a fever one morn-

ing and was dead by teatime the next

day,’ Miss Mullen said.

‘She took off her oxygen mask and the

last thing she said to me was, “Mummy,

I don’t like this. I want to go home”.

‘Her brother Cayden did not even get

a chance to say goodbye.’

Miss Mullen, who is separated from

Harper’s father Andrew Aitken, 41, said

her daughter had also been ill with diar-

rhoea the day before her death.

She noticed a rash on Harper’s stom-

ach and fearing her daughter could

have meningitis, called an ambulance.

‘The rash was making me panic,’ she

said. ‘I knew every minute counted, but

she was still responsive. She was drink-

By Arthur Martin

ing lots of water, so the doctors thought

it might be a urine infection.

‘After a couple of hours her rash was

fading and she was sent home. It was

thought she had a tummy bug because

of her diarrhoea.’

But the condition worsened, and Miss

Mullen phoned the hospital, only to be

told she should go to her GP first.

Miss Mullen said Harper passed out

at the GP surgery, adding: ‘All of sud-

den she collapsed in the waiting room.

She just flopped in my arms.

‘She was taken straight into a resusci-

tation room in hospital, then she was

taken into theatre.

‘She deteriorated so quickly. I felt

complete disbelief.

‘I could not believe this was happen- Tragedy: Lori Mullen with her daughter Harper

Girl, 3, dies of

sepsis hours

af ter hospital

sent her home

Go to A&E immediately or

call 999 if your child has

any of the following:

Looks mottled, bluish

or pale

Is very lethargic or

difficult to wake

Feels abnormally

cold to touch

Is breathing very fast

Has a rash that doesn’t

fade when you press it

Has a fit or convulsion

Source: NHS/UK Sepsis Trust

÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷

Symptoms to

watch out for

Keep your hair

on! Police fury

at mugshot gags

WITH such a remarkable hairstyle you

might expect this wanted drug dealer to

be rather easy to track down with a

little old-fashioned policing.

But, as is the modern way, officers

decided to post a picture of Jermaine

Taylor online along with an appeal for

his whereabouts.

And when the mugshot triggered a

torrent of mockery from Facebook users

the force hit back – on behalf of the

offender.

The photo of the 21-year-old – who

had breached the conditions of his

release licence – became the subject

of thousands of online comments

aimed at his unusual hairstyle.

Matt Price wrote: ‘Push his release

date back further than his hair line,

that should teach him.’

Arron Bevin added: ‘That hairline goes

further back than Woolworths.’ And CJ

Forde joked: ‘That hairline been pushed

back more times than Brexit.’

Despite the attention, Gwent Police

was not amuse, saying: ‘Harassing,

threatening and abusing people on

social media can be against the law. If

you say something about someone

which is grossly offensive or is of an

indecent, obscene or menacing charac-

ter, then you could be investigated.’

The statement prompted further

ridicule, with some calling on the police

to ‘keep their hair on’. Taylor, from

Newport, is still at large.

Cable cars fall

as wires slashed

DOZENS of cable cars crashed into a hill-

side after a vandal attack severed the

overhead wire.

Thirty cars fell to the ground when the

6,600ft haul rope at the Squamish Sea-

to-Sky Gondola, north of Vancouver, was

cut. The attraction was not open at the

time. The cable car ride, pictured above,

can carry up to 240 people at a time and

offers views of fjords on Canada’s

Pacific Coast.

‘We believe that the cable has been cut

and this is a deliberate act of vandalism,’

said Kara Triance of the Royal Canadian

Mounted Police. No one was injured.

Cars ‘should be charged like smartphones’

ing in front of me.’

Harper developed a red rash

on her back and a black rash

on her face and arm, and doc-

tors told her mother she was

dangerously ill.

She was put into an induced

coma and a specialist team

spent 45 minutes trying to

save her life.

But she was pronounced

dead by doctors a little over

two hours after being admit-

ted to hospital.

Last night, her mother

described her heartache at

having to watch her daughter

die at Forth Valley Royal Hos-

pital in Larbert, near Falkirk,

on March 8.

NHS Forth Valley is investi-

gating the circumstances of

Harper’s death.

Miss Mullen, a waitress from

Bo’ness in West Lothian,

wants her daughter’s death to

raise awareness of sepsis,

which occurs when the body

reacts to an infection by

attacking its own organs

and tissues.

In rare cases, it can be caused

when bacteria enters a small

cut or blister. If untreated, the

infection may spread to other

parts of the body and can kill.

Miss Mullen said: ‘The day

she died we took her to the

doctor at 3.45pm, got to hospi-

tal at 4.30pm and she died at

6.45pm. I left with a lock of her

hair and never saw her again.

‘I don’t want this to happen

to anyone else’s child.’

The Daily Mail has led the

campaign to improve sepsis

care since 2016 after William

Mead, one, died when GPs and

medical staff missed the warn-

ing signs of the condition.

There were 350,344 hospital

admissions for sepsis in

2017/18, up from 169,125 three

years before. The total for

babies and toddlers has risen

by almost a quarter to 38,401.

÷ Around one in three sepsis

survivors will die within a year,

a study warns.

A quarter have high levels of

inflammation a year after leav-

ing hospital and are at higher

risk of major health problems.

Professor Sachin Yende, of

the University of Pittsburgh,

whose study appears in the

journal JAMA Network Open,

said: ‘Our findings about

chronic inflammation post-

discharge suggest addressing

this may be important to

improve patients’ outcomes.’

Comment – Page 16

Wanted: Jermaine Taylor, 21

CHARGING an electric car must be as

easy as plugging in a smartphone in

order to persuade motorists to buy one,

the Transport Secretary said.

Grant Shapps – who will be getting his

own electric car from Tesla this week – has

doubled Government funding for on-street

electric charge points.

The extra £2.5million will allow the instal-

lation of more than 1,000 additional charge

points on residential roads.

These can be built into existing structures

such as lamp posts to provide access near

the homes of electric car owners who do not

have off-street parking.

Mr Shapps vowed to help ‘super-charge

the zero emission revolution’ and said driv-

ers should ‘feel confident about the availa-

bility of charge points near their homes’.

Industry experts have warned that

demand for electric cars will be restricted

unless there are significant improvements

to the charging infrastructure.

Jack Cousens of the AA said: ‘The success

of the UK’s electric vehicle revolution

hinges on access to charging infrastructure

and many neighbourhoods so far feel dis-

connected. This announcement is welcome

news but there is still a long way to go.’

Data from the Society of Motor Manufac-

turers and Traders shows 14,200 new elec-

tric cars were bought during the first seven

months of the year, up 71 per cent on the

same period in 2018. But only one in 500

cars on the road is fully electric.

Ministers have pledged to phase out the

sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 in

a bid to crack down on air pollution.

By James Salmon

Transport Editor

Daily Mail, Monday, August 12, 2019