A woman whose daughter died over six years ago from a treatable heart arrhythmia – a condition misdiagnosed by doctors – is speaking out.
Tanya Barnett was hoping the doctors involved would take part in a study for a new medical journal so others could learn from their mistakes, but they have declined.
She says she wants something to be learned from her daughter’s death.
“As a mother, you can’t tell me that she died for nothing,” says Barnett.
Her daughter Jessica died in May 2007, one week before her 18th birthday. She had been dealing with different symptoms for about five years.
“At the time we thought it was fainting,” says Barnett.
She was put on epilepsy medication for a year, only to be told that wasn’t the problem.
Barnett says she was suspicious that her daughter had long QT syndrome, a treatable heart arrhythmia, but the tests came back negative.
“Near the end he just told us it was psychological in nature and told Jess that she needed to go home and breathe through it.”
Jessica died nine months later and it was determined she did, in fact, have long QT syndrome. Her family learned of the errors 15 months after her death in the medical examiner’s report.
“At that point we realized that tests had been misread, tests were not seen,” says Barnett.
The family eventually sued the doctors and the hospitals involved and a lawsuit was settled out of court.
They also created a video to tell Jessica’s story, which has caught the attention of a research analyst in North Carolina who is involved with a group aimed at improving diagnosis in medicine.
Barnett says he uses her daughter’s case in some of his lectures. He also wanted to speak to the doctors in Nova Scotia, as part of a case study which he plans to publish in a new medical journal in January.
All three doctors have declined his request. They also declined CTV’s request for an interview.
The family received an explanation from one of the doctors.
“He told us that it probably would not be beneficial to either of us, family or for him, to open up old wounds,” says Barnett.
She says learned another doctor was advised by the Canadian Medical Protective Society not to take part.
Barnett says she is disappointed in their refusal and that it isn’t about shaming the doctors. She says it’s about learning from their mistakes, saving lives, and giving meaning to her daughter’s death.
“Physicians are going to make errors. They are human and errors will occur, but it’s more important what you do with those errors.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Jacqueline Foster
