‘I took her away to die’: Mum tells inquest four-year-old daughter was sent away from hospital hours before infection killed her

A four-year-old girl died from a viral infection hours after she was sent home from hospital, a coroner has heard.

Gracie Foster was taken to Chesterfield Royal Hospital for a routine tonsil removal, but the surgery was cancelled after she became unwell on the ward.

Speaking at the child’s inquest, her mother, Michelle Foster said: “I took her away to die.”

Ms Foster, from Old Whittington village in Derbyshire, told the coroner how consultant paediatrician Tim Ubhi said the operation should be rearranged and the youngster taken home to get better.

But within hours, her daughter had become seriously ill. She died after being rushed to Sheffield Children's Hospital later the same day.

Giving evidence, Ms Foster said: “I feel stupid that I trusted him.”

The inquest on Monday heard how Gracie had seemed well before the planned operation on 21 October 2015 and was excited because she had been promised treats at her grandmother's afterwards.

Ms Foster said her daughter child had initially seemed happy in the hospital’s play area – but had then complained of a sore throat. She suddenly went “like she was sedated,” Ms Foster added.

When the child was given pre-medication for her operation, she vomited and a nurse found she had a temperature of 40.1 degrees.

An anaesthetist said he could no longer do the operation and Ms Foster then waited 90 minutes for consultant paediatrician Dr Ubhi to check on Gracie. When he finally did so, she recalled, he looked at her tonsils but did not conduct any further examination.

"The doctor said she didn't need antibiotics - she had a viral infection," Ms Foster said. "She needed paracetamol and ibuprofen.”

She said she was told to take her daughter home even though the youngster was "flopping" so much she had to be carried out of hospital. “No-one was worried about her apart from me, it seemed,” Ms Foster said.

Gracie was left at her grandmother's house as planned but Ms Foster said she later got a call from her mother saying she was taking the child to A&E.

By the time Ms Foster arrived there herself, she said her daughter was "covered in tubes, 10 people all round her, absolutely covered in a purple rash".

She added: "I thought 'how has this happened?’”

The coroner heard how a post-mortem examination found Gracie died of Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome caused by a meningococcal infection.

The inquest heard the child had brought a letter home from school three weeks previously telling parents that a pupil at the school had meningitis.

Ms Foster said she had been concerned for the boy but not worried for her daughter as they had little contact.

Before the inquest, Ms Foster said: "Gracie was full of life and a really happy little girl who made everyone smile. She was such an entertainer. There wasn't anything she wouldn't try, she was so adventurous."

The inquest continues.