Little girl's 'virus' turns out to be devastating disease
A family have launched an appeal after their two-year-old girl was wrongly diagnosed with a viral infection.
The parents of Isla Chapman were told by doctors she had a virus.
But Amanda and Dale Chapman, from Plymouth, Devon, later discovered she had acute myeloid leukaemia – a rare cancer of the white blood cells that only affects a handful of children every year.
Little Isla was transferred to Bristol Children's Hospital where she is still being treated and will need a bone marrow transplant after Christmas.
Ms Chapman said she could not stop asking: “Why our baby girl?”
“Why does our daughter who is 2 years old have cancer? These questions will never be answered and we are fighting for our daughter’s health every day.
“We do not know what journey Isla will experience but she is in the best place.
“Bristol Children’s Hospital has some of the best doctors and nurses that we have ever met.
“They are doing everything they can to save our daughter from this horrible disease and they will never understand how grateful we are for their continuous hard work.
”We will be in hospital for up to nine months and unsure when we will be allowed home.
“We want to thank our amazing family and friends that have helped us throughout this difficult time.”
Relatives of the Chapmans – who were stunned by the revelation – have launched an appeal to help support the young family.
As of Friday morning, almost $20,000 has been raised for the family on a GoFundMe page created by Maxine Walter and Dale’s twin brother Aaron Chapman.
"They took Isla to [another hospital] because her face kept swelling up and were told at the time that it was probably an allergic reaction to something she had eaten or had been in contact with,” Ms Walter said.
"They were then told it was just a viral infection and it will go down in a couple of weeks.
"But Amanda insisted that Isla had blood tests and they came back saying she had a low red blood count leading to the doctors discovering she had acute myeloid leukaemia.
"Isla has already undergone weeks of intensive chemotherapy and there will be more to come. She needs to have a bone marrow transplant which will probably be after Christmas.”
Ms Walter said despite “going through a lot”, Isla had “been her usual bright and lovely self, she is still so excited to see people”.
"The family need support as both parents are off work and Isla's brother is only aged one himself,” she said.
"Staying in Bristol is very expensive and the whole thing is obviously very difficult for them so they appreciate everyone's help so much."
- Yahoo UK
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