Rebbeca George,
27, was forced to take her desperately ill five-year-old son Jake, more
than 100 miles in a £90 taxi ride to an emergency unit in Manchester,
after doctors at her local hospital said he was fine
A mother was forced to spend £90 taking her sick son to a hospital in a taxi in a desperate bid to find out what was wrong with him.
Rebbeca
George, 27, was convinced her son Jake was seriously ill - but doctors
at her local hospital repeatedly insisted he was fine.
In
despair, after eights visits over six months, she got in a taxi and
travelled more than 100 miles from her home in the Lake District,
the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.
Within two days of arriving, five-year-old Jake was diagnosed with advanced cancer and found to be 'riddled' with tumours.
Within two days of arriving in Manchester, Jake was diagnosed with advanced cancer and was found to be 'riddled' with tumours
He endured five rounds of gruelling chemotherapy and will still need one more, but scans have now revealed his cancer has gone.
Miss
George took Jake – who has severe autism and learning disabilities – to
the scandal-hit Furness General Hospital (FGH), Cumbria, for the first
time in May, when he was sent away with a suspected viral infection.
FGH is currently the subject of a public inquiry, following fears over the deaths of at least eight mothers and babies in 2008.
But
even after the pair had been sent home from the hospital, Miss George
was still convinced there was something wrong with Jake.
She
returned again and he was diagnosed with an infection and a lack of iron
in his blood, but was then discharged with antibiotics and iron
supplements.
However she remained worried and returned to FGH six times over six months, only to be told her son was 'getting better'.
Miss
George said: 'At the beginning of this year, I started noticing little
things, like every now and then he'd start limping for no reason.
'I'd taken him to the hospital for that before, but they'd never come back with anything.
'Then around March time it seemed he was always tired, he'd scream all night long, and he wouldn't sleep.
'He'd
be running around playing and then he'd suddenly be crying and there
was nothing you could do to calm him down or make him feel better.
'He just went from being really happy and hyper to being really quiet and miserable.
'He was sleeping all the time and he just lay there really sad. He wouldn't do anything.'
The last time he was sent away from hospital, Jake spent the night severely unwell and collapsed the following morning.
Miss
George felt she had no option but to take him from their Lake District
home to a dedicated unit at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital,
more than 100 miles away.
Within
48 hours of arriving in Manchester, Jake was given morphine and a blood
transfusion, having been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
An MRI scan at the beginning of June revealed tumours all over his spine and in his spleen, liver and kidneys.
Non-Hodgkin
lymphoma is a rare cancer that develops in the lymphatic system, which
is a network of vessels and glands spread throughout the body.
It
occurs when white blood cells called lymphocytes - that help the body
fight infection and disease - begin growing in an uncontrolled way.
Jake underwent
five gruelling round of chemotherapy, and has one more to go. Miss
George is now keeping people up to date on her son's progress via Jake's
Journey Facebook page
Jake
was also diagnosed with a specific type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma known
as Burkitt lymphoma, which affects specific white blood cells known as
'B-cells', which mature in the bone marrow.
Miss George described the shock at finding out her son had advanced cancer. She said: 'He was riddled with tumours.
'Even having suspected he might have cancer, the sheer amount of them I couldn't have been prepared for.'
Jake's treatment at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital saw him endure five gruelling runs of chemotherapy.
I
know my little boy inside out, I know him better than anyone else does.
I understand his body language, every little look on his face, his
behaviour
Sessions
usually lasted four to five days, followed by him being put on a drip
to flush the toxicity of the drugs out of his system.
'Because his cancer was fast growing and very aggressive they had to treat it the same way,' Miss George said.
'The
third lot nearly killed him. He ended up in intensive care and we
nearly lost him. He picked up a nasty virus and went into septic shock.
Bone marrow biopsies have now revealed Jake's cancer cells are gone.
Having had one session of chemotherapy since tests showed the cancer is gone, he has only one left to go.
Miss George said: 'He's been absolutely amazing.
'They've done awful things to him - weekly lumbar punctures, bone marrow biopsies, chemo.
'He has bloods taken every single day - and he just deals with it.
Tests show thankfully Jake is now
cancer free and his mother hopes they may be able to return to their
home in Cumbria soon. He is pictured here at four years old before his
treatment
'When
he's in pain he lies there quietly and deals with it, when he's well
he's like he is today. I haven't seen Jake as well since last year.'
After moving to Manchester to be close to Jake, Miss George is hopeful they may both be able to go back to Cumbria soon.
She is determined lessons be learned from Jake's experience at FGH.
She also worries that his disabilities may have been responsible for treatment she describes as 'disgusting'.
On
one occasion, she says, her son's evident agony almost brought her to
tears, yet she was asked by a doctor whether his behaviour was due to
his autism.
Miss George says her son has been 'amazing' in handling the treatment
And she believes 'arrogance' led Jake's doctor to ignore her fears after she requested a second opinion on his condition.
Miss George says: 'I know my little boy inside out, I know him better than anyone else does.
'I understand his body language, every little look on his face, his behaviour.
'Jake
doesn't talk, he doesn't do sign language, he can't communicate - but I
read him. That's how it's always had to be. So the fact that they
wouldn't listen to me or take me seriously is disgusting.'
She added: 'If I hadn't brought him down here, he would have died from infection.
'Yes,
I understand childhood cancer is rare, but it's not that rare. The
symptoms were there, I suspected it, so why didn't they?'
George
Nasmyth, medical director for the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay
NHS Foundation Trust, said: 'We are very sorry that the paediatric
service at Furness General Hospital did not meet the standards of care
expected by Jake and his family, and we are investigating thoroughly.
'The
findings of our analysis will be shared with the family in due course,
and we will listen and respond directly to their concerns.'
In
the meantime, Miss George is keeping people up to date on her son's
progress via Jake's Journey Facebook page, which has almost 1,000
followers.
She
explained: 'I want to put his story out there because I think he's
absolutely remarkable. I'm so proud of him, I really am. But at the same
time I want people to know that this happens.
'Everyone
knows about the breast cancers and the prostate cancers and the things
that affect adults, but what do we really know about the cancers
children get? We need to raise awareness.'
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