A two-year-old boy from Eaton Socon was rushed to hospital with the “worst ever case” of chickenpox after allegedly being turned away by a receptionist at his GP surgery.
Jasper Allen spent five days on Hinchingbrooke Hospital’s children’s ward last month when his sores became infected, leaving him screaming in pain every time his parents tried to touch him.
Mum Sarah Allen, a nursery manager, said: “I was one of those parents who couldn’t wait for my two children to get chickenpox so then it was out of the way – I didn’t think there was any harm in letting him get it.
“But to see him get it like that and see how it took over his body was just heart-breaking.”
Sarah, aged 36, noticed a few spots on Jasper, but rang her GP after they burst into “hundreds”.
She said: “When I first called our local GP’s surgery I spoke to the receptionist to make an appoint-ment, but when I told her it was chickenpox she said to me ‘every mother thinks their child has bad chickenpox’.
“I knew I wasn’t being a neurotic mother – I have two children and have run a nursery and seen hundreds of kids with chicken-pox before so I knew this wasn’t normal.”
As Jasper’s temperature was still rising, Sarah took him to the surgery the following day and he was prescribed antibiotics and oral medication.
However, hours later, the youngster’s condition had not improved and Sarah rushed him to A&E where Jasper was put on an IV drip, antiviral medication, antibiotics and morphine.
“When Jasper was admitted to hospital, it was scary, but I was also relieved I was actually being taken seriously and they were doing some-thing about it. We couldn’t hold him for three days because he screamed every time we touched him.
“Everyone’s reactions in the hospital were just complete shock over how severe it was – the doctors all wanted to come and see this worst ever case of chickenpox.”
Sarah has now started a govern-ment petition to make chickenpox vaccinations available for all children.
The vaccine is currently offered on the NHS, but only if there is a clinical need.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “Chickenpox is usually a mild illness in children with most recovering quickly. The vaccine is not routinely offered to children although the Government’s expert vaccination advisors are reviewing this.”
A spokesman for the Cambridge and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which oversees the area’s GP surgeries, said: “The CCG is unable to comment upon individual cases.”
The petition is at: www.petition.parliament.uk/petitions/161966.
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