A "cheeky" one-year-old girl died after being sent home from A&E one day before, her devastated parents have said.
Hailey Thompson, 22 months, who was described as a "cheeky madam", died at Wigan Infirmary on Monday, December 19. Her parents, Kris Thompson, 32, and Ibolya Adam, 35, took her to the hospital on Saturday evening (December 17) suspecting she had a viral inflection.
Hailey developed a cough and runny nose in early December, and when her symptoms did not improve her parents sought a GP's advice, MEN reports.
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On December 15, Kris and Ibolya said they were woken by Hailey's coughing, which was getting worse. With a GP appointment booked for the next day, Hailey - who has a half sister Charlotte, seven - was taken to nursery, but only lasted a couple of hours before she was sent home.
Kris and Ibolya said a GP told them to keep giving Hailey Calpol and ibuprofen. By Saturday, December 17, she appeared to be getting better, they said.
Kris, who works as an admin coordinator at a warehouse, told the Manchester Evening News : " "She was perfectly fine and was eating really well. Just after 6pm, I put her into bed and she fell straight asleep.
"We checked on her a couple of times throughout the night. At around 11.30pm, as I went to bed, I could hear her breathing really loudly. I don't know how to explain it, but a 22-month-old should not be breathing like a 70-year-old.
"I woke my girlfriend up because I had an intuition that something just wasn't right. I tried to ring [111] for advice, but was on the phone for about 20 minutes before I hung up. I tried 111 three times and couldn't get through.
"On the fourth try, I was told there would be a two-hour wait. Just minutes after putting the phone down, someone called back from the ambulance service and suggested taking her to the A&E at Wigan Infirmary."
Kris and Ibolya said they waited for four hours at the hospital before their daughter was triaged. When Hailey was seen, Kris said doctors checked her blood pressure; blood sugars; and temperature, which was noted as being high.
Kris said: "She was just panting. I thought maybe the viral infection had got through to her lungs or chest."
After a medic tried to check her tonsils, Hailey began throwing up, Kris said. She was later given medicine and her were parents told to return to hospital in a couple of days if her symptoms did not ease.
Kris said: "When we got home at around 7am [on Sunday, December 18], Hailey went straight to sleep and didn't wake up until about midday. She didn't leave the sofa all day and that's not like Hailey at all. She's always running around and can't sit still for five minutes, let alone five hours.
"We thought that something wasn't right, but we just thought it was the viral infection and the lack of sleep from being at the hospital. We put her in bed at around 6.30pm and she went straight off to sleep. During the night, she had some Calpol and a few swigs of her milk before going back off to sleep."
In the early hours of the next morning (December 19), Kris checked on Hailey. He said she was "panting", but he thought she was starting to get a little better. At around 5.30am, Kris' alarm for work went off.
He went to check on his daughter again and found her unresponsive and "frozen" in bed.
Kris said: "I managed to grab my phone and ring 999, I kept begging them to hurry up because I knew she was dying. Someone told me to take Hailey out of her cot and do CPR and chest compressions on her.
"It's something I've never done before, so doing it for the first time on my daughter was traumatic."
Hailey was rushed to hospital with Ibolya, while Kris stayed at home with Hailey's half sibling. Police officers then knocked on Kris' front door and accompanied him to hospital.
Two minutes before Kris arrived at Wigan Infirmary, Hailey died.
Kris and Ibolya hope to get answers soon. A post-mortem is scheduled to take place at Manchester Royal Children's Hospital later this week.
Kris said: "We really can’t understand why this has happened to us. Seeing her that Monday morning in bed with no colour is going to haunt me forever. Every time I look at a picture of her, I just break down in tears.
"She was a perfectly healthy child to us. She was so funny. Whatever she wanted, she would get.
"She was starting to count and was learning her sensory things more. She was at that age where she was just beginning to develop her own personality and she was a cheeky madam. She was just growing up so fast."
Greater Manchester Police said there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding Hailey's death. Officers have passed information to the coroner. A hospital investigation has been launched. The day after Hailey's death, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, declared a "critical incident" due to "immense pressure on services" on the eve of strike action.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the trust said: "Our sincere condolences go out to Hailey's family at this tragic time. We are aware of the family's concerns and are currently awaiting further information to understand more."
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