Potters Bar 'swine flu' girl sparks health scare

2:12pm Wednesday 29th April 2009

By Tomasz Johnson

A SEVEN-year-old girl sparked a health scare after turning up at Barnet Hospital with flu-like symptoms, days after she had been in contact with a woman who had been in Mexico.

Schoolgirl Jade Tschabold, of Ashwood Lane, Potters Bar, was kept in a corner of A&E before being moved into an isolation room in the hospital shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

Her mother Stefania Tschabold, 38, brought her in after she developed a fever, her temperature rocketed to 40 degrees and she became delirious, a week after she visited a family friend who had been on holiday in Cancun.

But after Mrs Tschabold was told there was little they could do to treat the illness, the family returned home before doctors could prescribe antiviral drugs, prompting the hospital to send a policeman to their home at 3am.

"He stood metres away from the house and told me to phone the hospital," Mrs Tschabold said. "They asked me why I had left, but the nurse had told me to go home."

Mrs Tschabold said the hospital, in Wellhouse Lane, Barnet, had dealt "very badly" with the situation, and had told her to treat her daughter with water and paracetemol.

"It probably isn't swine flu," she said. "But the way they handled it is apalling. A seven-year-old who is ill has not been treated. She could have got much, much worse."

A spokeswoman for Barnet Hospital said Mrs Tschabold was "clearly doing the best for her child", but said members of the public with swine flu symptoms have been instructed to stay away from hospital.

She said a doctor had left the room to call the Health Protection Agency and on returning, the family had left.

She added: "If you attend the hospital with symptoms we would send you home to carry on treatment, but clearly there was confusion about whether she should have gone home at the time and we would apologise for that.

"We want to minimise the risk of passing it on. Please listen to public messages that if you are suffering from the symptoms, don't come to hospital."

Swabs taken from Jade were sent to the Health Protection Agency for examination and the results are expected early tomorrow morning.

The world is currently in a state of high alert over fears that swine flu could become pandemic.

There have been confirmed cases in seven countries and 152 people had died since the virus moved from pigs to humans in Mexico.

The World Health Organisation has warned that as much as 40 per cent of the British population could become infected if the virus does become pandemic and anyone who has been to Mexico has been urged to closely monitor their health.

People have been warned not to attend hospital if any symptoms of swine flu appear and to call NHS Direct or their GP instead.