A teenage girl "could have died" after doctors misdiagnosed a huge swelling on her eye as a Covid symptom.
Bonnie Ghent, 13, from Hartcliffe in Bristol, was eventually told the build-up of fluid was caused by a life-threatening infection that had spread through her head and was rotting her skull.
The swelling, which her parents initially thought was conjunctivitis, started showing around the time she tested positive for coronavirus on Boxing Day.
Parents Joanne and Mike have revealed their beloved daughter "could have died" if they continued following the advice of doctors who told them it was a symptoms of the virus.
After speaking with their local GP, Bonnie was advised to take Nurofen to ease the swelling, Bristol Live reports.
She then visited a walk-in centre in Hengrove, where she was told to take anti-allergy medication Piriton. Days later when she returned, she was sent home with a bag of frozen peas.
Joanne and Mike say none of the doctors they saw couldn't pinpoint was wrong, leaving the distressed parents so worried they called 111 and took her directly to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.
Doctors there carried out scans and found the infection had spread through her head and rotted away the bone in her skull.
Joanne and Mike were told that if she hadn't of come into the hospital that day, she 'would have been dead.'
Bonnie now has part of her skull missing and needs to wear a helmet outside of the house after having major surgery, which has left her with a huge scar.
In a few weeks she is due to have a metal plate fitted on her forehead, and will be on antibiotics "for months."
Joanne said: "She had Covid Boxing Day, and within a week later she had huge swelling on her eye. I thought maybe it was a severe case of conjunctivitis. Due to Covid-19 restrictions the doctors was phone call only but a few days later it got worse and it then reached her forehead which caused a big lump.
"I took her to the GP, he said it was probably caused from coughing when she had Covid, that it was some fluid so he gave her some Nurofen and said to come back in two weeks time.
The swelling just got worse and worse, and she became more unwell, by this time I wasn’t happy waiting two weeks, so we took her to the walk-in centre and they said to give her Piriton and to come back if it got any worse.
"It did, we took her back again and they said this time to give her a bag of frozen peas to take the swelling down, as they weren’t sure what was causing it.
"A few hours later it got much worse, we rang 111 and they took 24 hours to reply, my intuition said I needed to take her to hospital now.
"Bonnie was given a room at the hospital as they told her she had to stay overnight. The doctors at the hospital did a CT scan, MRI scans, they did her bloods and said that the infection reached her bone, and spread around her head and the bone itself had rotted.
"She had it cut out, it was a few hours operation leaving a huge scar on her head from ear to ear, a major head surgery and in a few weeks she has to have a metal plate fitted on her forehead so more surgery, more antibiotics for months, and months of more healing.
"The doctors told us if we didn’t take her to the hospital that day, within two days she would of been dead. All this because it wasn’t looked into properly by the local GP. This shouldn’t never of happened and should of been looked into.
"We had to take time off work to look after Bonnie, she is on medication seven times a day plus nurse visits for IV injections and saline water in each nostril and hospital visits. The road is a long recovery."
Joanne and Mike have set up a fundraising page for their daughter to treat herself when she is feeling better. "I would like all donations to go to Bonnie Ghent for being such a brave girl," they said.
"She has missed school and not been able to see her friends, for a 13-year-old girl this is so tragic."
They have also warned parents to get swelling from Covid-19 checked. "I'm so glad we took her to the hospital in time. If you or your child has any swelling from Covid-19 please please don’t let this happen to you, get it seen too and don’t let the GP fob you off."
Donate to Bonnie's fundraiser here.
