Watch Jess' story May 5. 2012 | Comments (0)
Do no harm: Jess' story video
Do no harm: Jess' story video
Our Jess, forever 17We were a family of 5, but now there are only 4. Our 17-year old daughter, Jess, died almost five years ago from sudden cardiac death, but ultimately she died from the arrogance and indifference of diagnostic error. For four years we visited our local children's hospital regularly, looking for the answer to Jess' fainting/seizure episodes which started when she was 12. Initially we were told it was epilepsy, but after a year on meds with no improvement, they gave up this diagnosis and looked for something else. We approached them with the possibility of Long QT Syndrome, a heart arrhythmia problem that masquerades as epilepsy, with one big difference; LQTS is potentially fatal. After doing two work-ups in as many years they were positive it was not LQTS, but we still believed that it was, and pushed for repeated testing. From that point on, we were label as a 'nuisance family', and the doctors now believed that Jess' problem was one of mental health and told...
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