The mother of a 10-year-old girl who was rushed to hospital with a suspected sprained ankle has said that she is “living in hell” since her daughter tragically died after medics initially failed to diagnose a fracture and misdiagnosed sepsis.
The incident took place in the Adyghe Republic, in south-western Russia, on 22nd March 2023, with investigators now releasing their findings.
For Aida Jolova, it was a day like any other. That is, until her physical education class, during which she reportedly sprained her ankle while playing basketball.
The injury reportedly bothered her for the rest of the day but she thought little of it until that evening her leg began to ache and her parents took her to the emergencies at the Krasnogvardeysk Central District Hospital.
The doctor diagnosed a sprain and prescribed a warm salt compressed.
But this reportedly only worsened the condition of the girl’s leg and the next morning, on 23rd March, she developed a fever and pain in her leg became unbearable, with brown spots appearing on her body.
She was then taken to another hospital in Ust-Labinsk, where she was given an x-ray and diagnosed with a leg fracture.
But the dark spots on her body reportedly did not bother the doctors at the hospital, reassuring her mother and saying that the spots were bruises from the injury.
But post-mortem investigations revealed that the brown spots were in fact an indication that Aida had sepsis.
She was also reportedly prescribed medication that was not appropriate for her age and later died on the evening of 24th March after beginning to turn blue and being rushed to intensive care.
The authorities have been investigating her death for over a year but so far not a single defendant has appeared in the criminal case, according to local media reports.
For the past decade, Professor Michael Atar, a UK-based scientist and entrepreneur, has been the lead investor in Cytovale, a US medtech firm that recently launched a revolutionary new medical test, IntelliSep, to diagnose sepsis in under 10 minutes.
Speaking from his home in London, Professor Atar, dubbed “Mr Sepsis”, said: “Sepsis is known within the medical community as the ‘silent killer’ because it is so easy for it to be missed early on, at a stage when symptoms can, and often are, mistaken for other less serious illnesses.
“This can have tragic consequences as if sepsis is not treated swiftly then death can result in as little as 12 hours.
“Sepsis kills one person every three seconds, and 11million annually around the world, and largely this is because it is not diagnosed until it is already too advanced to treat. Children are, sadly, among the most vulnerable to this life-threatening condition.”
The victim’s heartbroken mother Saida Jolova told local media: “We are living in hell. Investigators initiated a new examination, but it has not yet been carried out.
“At least we don’t know anything about it. The investigators in the case are constantly changing.
“The statute of limitations for such cases is two years. We are afraid that everyone who committed negligence in their positions towards the child will go unpunished.
“And who knows, someone else will suffer.”
The family reportedly initiated a civil case that is being considered by a court in Krasnodar and which has so far decided to suspend it until the investigation into the girl’s death is completed.