A Texas father is mad.
His 4-year-old daughter, Ashanti Grinage, developed a high fever on Jan. 29. She was taken to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with the flu and sent home with medicine, according to father Martel Grinage.
Two days later, she died. Grinage told Dallas news outlet WFAA that doctors failed to diagnose his daughter’s persistent cough as pneumonia.
“On Tuesday when she went to the doctor, she had pneumonia, and we didn’t know,” he said.
The Garland, Texas, family said their 4-year-old didn’t receive a flu shot. Her death came amid a flu season that hasn’t seemed as urgent as last year’s because there have been fewer deaths. Last year, flu complications claimed the lives of 180 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
But the flu is starting to hit some communities hard. Schools are closing and administrators are struggling to find enough substitutes to replace sick teachers.
The family took Ashanti back to the emergency room on Thursday when she was experiencing heavy fatigue and coughing up mucus.
“The doctors told me when I got there that her lungs were full of pneumonia and that they did the best that they could do,” Grinage said.
Grinage told ABC 13 he wished he had asked doctors to check his only child for infection the first time he was in the emergency room.
“I’m mad at myself. I’m mad at everyone. I’m mad at the hospital. I’m mad at God,” he said. “I can’t lie to you.”
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SOURCE: USA Today, Sonja Haller