A five-year-old girl died in her father’s arms less than 36 hours after a doctor allegedly told him there was “nothing to worry about”.
Fizzah Malik had been suffering from a high temperature, a rash and pain on her side for two days when her worried parents took her to the urgent care centre (UCC) at King George Hospital.
They say that despite carrying out a number of checks on little Fizzah, the doctor told them she had a virus and would be well within three days.
A day-and-a-half later, with Fizzah now vomiting, her distraught father watched his only daughter’s eyes suddenly “roll back and her head drop” as he fed her milk.
“I lost her in my arms,” said Marshal Aashtar, 43, of Avondale Crescent, Redbridge.
“I was doing mouth-to- mouth as I was talked through it on the phone. But I knew she was gone.”
Fizzah was buried at the Gardens of Peace cemetery in Hainault on Friday.
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Her parents are waiting to learn the cause of death, but initial findings suggest streptococcus – an infection caused by a type of bacteria – was a factor.
“Why did he [the doctor] send her home?” said Fizzah’s mother Rubina Aashtar, 41. “My daughter was in very bad pain.”
Fizzah was taken to see her GP at Ilford Medical Centre, Cleveland Road, Ilford, 36 hours after becoming ill.
Her parents were told she had a viral infection and they should continue giving her Ibuprofen and Calpol.
Later, she was taken to the UCC in Barley Lane, Goodmayes. The next day Mrs Aashtar – who has two sons – called her GP surgery to try to speak to her doctor.
She says she was told she could not, to go to A&E if it was urgent, or to call back in the morning. But the following morning Fizzah died.
Lesley McCourt, chief executive of the Partnership of East London Co-operatives – which runs the UCC – said it was “looking in detail at the circumstances of the case”.
