P.J.
0
Why are you crying daddy?
As five-year-old Ward Alshammary lay dying, she asked her father one last heartbreaking question: ‘Why are you crying, Daddy?’
The brave schoolgirl was suffering a cardiac arrest brought on by an illness that doctors failed to spot, an inquest heard.
She had been sent home from hospital by medics who believed she simply had a virus.
But two days later she was rushed back when her condition deteriorated rapidly. It turned out Ward was suffering from bronchial pneumonia and a major infection between her lungs and chest wall.
As they prepared to move her to paediatric intensive care from a high dependency unit, they gave her medication to tackle the bacterial infection but the youngster suffered a cardiac arrest.
But just moments before she died, Ward gave her crying father Badr Alshammary a kiss and asked him why he was in tears.
Speaking about how their lives had been turned upside down by her death, her father and mother Feraihah said they never thought they wouldn't come home from the hospital without their daughter.
The couple, who used to live in Southampton, said: 'We were incredibly close to our daughter Ward.
'Although she was only five years old, she cared for us, as much as we cared for her.
'She loved her siblings and all of her friends at school. Ward loved going to school and she loved her teachers.
'When she grew up she wanted to be a paediatrician - she even told the doctor at the hospital that was what she wanted to be.
'After that first visit to the hospital, we thought she would be fine. Even when we went back on 21 January 2013, we did not expect to leave the hospital without our daughter.
'Ward's death has affected our lives significantly: our family life, our studies, every day, even walking down the street.
'We know that nothing can bring Ward back but we hope that knowledge of the circumstances in which Ward died, which we now understand in more detail, can prevent similar deaths in the future.'
When she was first admitted, the little girl was examined and given an antihistamine drug before being sent home.
As five-year-old Ward Alshammary lay dying, she asked her father one last heartbreaking question: ‘Why are you crying, Daddy?’
The brave schoolgirl was suffering a cardiac arrest brought on by an illness that doctors failed to spot, an inquest heard.
She had been sent home from hospital by medics who believed she simply had a virus.
But two days later she was rushed back when her condition deteriorated rapidly. It turned out Ward was suffering from bronchial pneumonia and a major infection between her lungs and chest wall.
As they prepared to move her to paediatric intensive care from a high dependency unit, they gave her medication to tackle the bacterial infection but the youngster suffered a cardiac arrest.
But just moments before she died, Ward gave her crying father Badr Alshammary a kiss and asked him why he was in tears.
Speaking about how their lives had been turned upside down by her death, her father and mother Feraihah said they never thought they wouldn't come home from the hospital without their daughter.
The couple, who used to live in Southampton, said: 'We were incredibly close to our daughter Ward.
'Although she was only five years old, she cared for us, as much as we cared for her.
'She loved her siblings and all of her friends at school. Ward loved going to school and she loved her teachers.
'When she grew up she wanted to be a paediatrician - she even told the doctor at the hospital that was what she wanted to be.
'After that first visit to the hospital, we thought she would be fine. Even when we went back on 21 January 2013, we did not expect to leave the hospital without our daughter.
'Ward's death has affected our lives significantly: our family life, our studies, every day, even walking down the street.
'We know that nothing can bring Ward back but we hope that knowledge of the circumstances in which Ward died, which we now understand in more detail, can prevent similar deaths in the future.'
When she was first admitted, the little girl was examined and given an antihistamine drug before being sent home.
