Apologies in advance for the long post.
Just over 3 weeks ago I took DS to our GPs concerned he had scarlet fever – high temp and rash mainly on trunk but a bit on cheeks too. I felt the rash was rough, but GP disagreed, said it was just slapped cheek. Fair enough I thought, she’s the doctor. He was very unwell for a week – temp, sore throat, lethargic but struggled to sleep, v reluctant to eat and drink – and took another week to get back to about normal. The second week DH and I had a very sore throat, temp, night sweats and sore muscles – just assumed a virus as that time of year. Later that week DH admitted to hospital with bad case of cellulitis, as needed iv antibiotics and has been readmitted this week for surgical drainage. Getting to the point now. When swabbed, it was found his cellulitis was caused by strep A. We now think our “virus” was strep throat, which we could well have got from DS as scarlet fever is also caused by strep A. My husband’s consultant agreed that this sounds plausible and DS was misdiagnosed. I’ve since learnt another child at his preschool had scarlet fever around the same time and about 10 days ago the skin on his fingers and toes started to peel, which seemed strange at the time, but fits the end of scarlet fever.
We’ll never know for sure – guess it still could be a coincidence, if a very big one - but I feel so angry because I specifically asked was it scarlet fever and it’s put DH in hospital whose recovery is potentially going to be months. Not just that, but DS could have had complications from not treating it, he could have passed it to his 3-month-old sister and some of the kids at his preschool as he went back during the second week as was told he wasn’t infectious with his “slapped cheek” rash. I’d like it in his medical records he’s potentially had scarlet fever, so planning to make a GP appointment. Depending on how that goes, I’m tempted to put in a complaint, as know it won’t help us, but potentially prevent another family having probs if something is learnt from this case. I know there are several similarities between symptoms in the two conditions, but I’d expect a doctor to know the difference, especially as the management and advice are so different.
After writing all this, I’m not even sure what I’m hoping to gain from this post, but just wondered if anyone else had experience of this misdiagnosis that only became apparent when someone else became ill?