22-year-old dies of cervical cancer after GPs turned her away 15 times
A 22-year-old woman died of cervical cancer after GPs turned her away 15 times and told her not to worry about the “Jade Goody effect”.
Emma Swain pleaded with her GP for a smear test as she was experiencing symptoms, but was told she was too young by medical professionals.
Instead, doctors had placed the blame on her contraceptive pill for her symptoms and told her what happened to Jade Goody was unlikely to happen to her.
In 2009, TV personality Jade Goody died from cervical cancer at the age of 27.
Emma first approached her doctor about a smear test in May 2013 after experiencing back pain and bleeding after sex.
But her request was refused because the cervical screening is only offered to women over the age of 25.
Her GP has since admitted that if the 22-year-old had been given the smear test, she may still be alive.
Devastated at the loss of his daughter, Darren Swain told the Mirror: “To have watched one of your children go through that and to know it could have been prevented is incredibly hard to accept.
“We trusted these people – the professionals – to know what they were doing. I’ll never forgive them.”
Darren, 51, said: “Basically, he told her she was worrying over nothing. He couldn’t have been more wrong. It cost Emma her life.”
Over the course of four months, Emma contacted her doctor 14 times but was advised to swap her brand of contraceptive pill.
She changed her pill five times during those four months.
Unfortunately, Emma was diagnosed with cervical cancer in December of that year and died the following year in 2014.
Emma’s family has since been fighting a six-year legal battle, one that they have recently won.
Her family has been awarded compensation for her death.
In a letter to the dad-of-three, Dr Stephen Golding, Dr Hendrik Parmentier and practice nurse Maureen Dillon from The Haling Park Partnership in Croydon, South London, apologised for what happened to Emma.
They wrote: “We admit that if the care and treatment provided to your daughter had been of a reasonable standard, on the balance of probabilities, she would have survived.”
A spokesperson for the surgery told the Mirror: “Since Emma’s death, the practice has reviewed its processes to ensure lessons have been learned.”