A BELFAST woman whose tuberculosis (TB) was left undiagnosed for 11 months has instructed a solicitor to launch legal proceedings against health authorities for negligence.
The mother-of-two, who does not want to be named, is to pursue legal action against the Belfast health trust as a misdiagnosis meant she unknowingly passed the condition on to her newborn baby daughter and young son.
The Short Strand woman was pregnant with her daughter when she became unwell in March 2019.
Unable to breathe when she lay down, the then pregnant woman attended A&E at the Royal Victoria Hospital where she was diagnosed with pneumonia on her left lung and sent home with anti-biotics.
When the medication made her unwell, she was admitted to the Belfast Royal Maternity Hospital for treatment and was then discharged.
In May that year the 29-year-old gave birth to a baby daughter and following this, developed a constant cough.
However, despite feeling constantly unwell, it was not until January 2020 that she was formally diagnosed with TB.
In the meantime, her baby daughter had also become unwell and had been diagnosed with pneumonia on her left lung.
Following her own diagnosis, her two children were also diagnosed with TB.
Her baby daughter was found to have the infection on both lungs as the condition had gone untreated for so long.
Her three-year-old son was diagnosed with active TB on January 18.
On the same day, the young boy's mother phoned his school, St Matthew's Nursery School in east Belfast, to inform them that her son had active TB.
However, the Public Health Agency (PHA) did not write to parents about the case and to offer screening until March 2.
While the mother had to undergo weeks of treatment, both children saw their treatment last months.
The Short Strand mother has also been left with a hole in her lung, shortness of breath and issues with her heart as a result of contracting TB.
Her young daughter has also been left with severe scarring on her lungs.
In May this year, another young boy, who had been in the same nursery class as the woman's son last year and is in his P1 class this year, was diagnosed with TB meningitis, becoming the second case at the school.
The family of the five-year-old, who ended up on a life support machine, said he had been suffering from ill health ever since there was a previous TB case at his school however had not been offered screening.
Now, the mother of the first boy, has instructed her legal team to launch proceedings against the Belfast trust in relation to her misdiagnosis.
The woman is also seeking answers from the PHA as to why no earlier action was taken to inform parents of other pupils and screen them.
Solicitor Michael Brentnall, who is representing the woman, said: "We are instructed by our client to firstly issue against the trust for negligence relating to her misdiagnosis of TB, which invariably led to the transmission to her children, but we have also requested a full explanation in respect of the PHA and trust interaction with the school regarding the infection of both her and her son."
A spokesman for the Belfast trust said it had met with the Short Strand woman and had apologised to her.
A spokeswoman for the PHA said at "all times standard practice has been followed, and appropriate risk assessments undertaken.
"Screening has taken place in line with standard national guidance".
