CNN’s Jake Tapper is not shutting up about how his daughter almost died because her condition was misdiagnosed.
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Alice’s story may be a grim one, but it’s a lesson to seek tests when your current treatment is not improving your health. Jake Tapper made the right call and it saved his daughter’s life.
Alice Tapper – Shares Harrowing Story Of Pain And Neglect
Sometimes the people who should know better can also err. For Alice, when she complained about her pain and her deteriorating condition, the doctors would not acknowledge her complaints.
This led to pain and suffering that might not have happened if her condition was rightly diagnosed in the first place.
The 15-year-old was forthcoming about how she “almost died” from appendicitis last year after doctors misdiagnosed her.
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The teen wrote an op-ed for CNN, detailing her battle with the condition and how misdiagnosis allowed it to get worse. She was first hospitalized when she started feeling “severe abdominal pain”, but due to the fact that she was “tender all over” and not just on one side, the doctors concluded she had a viral infection and dismissed the possibility of it being something else.
“I got sicker and my skin started turning a pale green. As Monday turned into Tuesday, I was only given Tylenol for my pain,” Alice wrote. “My mom asked the doctors why I couldn’t get a sonogram to see what was happening inside my abdomen; they said it wasn’t needed. My dad asked why I couldn’t get antibiotics; the doctors said for a viral infection they could do more harm than good.
“My parents kept pushing for a gastroenterologist who might have more insight about my condition to evaluate me, but one never came.”
Alice, at that point, naturally began to feel scared and “helpless” because she wasn’t being listened to. “I was not being heard; when I described to the doctors how much pain I was in, they responded with condescending looks,” she wrote.
Ultrasound Test Revealed Doctors Were Wrong All Along
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The famous CNN broadcaster finally decided he wouldn’t take their own word for it anymore and insisted that imaging be done for his daughter.
The ultrsound result confirmed she actually had a perforated appendix that was leaking toxic fluids into her internal organs, so she was rushed into emergency surgery.
“I had sepsis and we would later learn I was going into hypovolemic shock — which can cause organs to stop working. That night was the scariest night of my life,” she recalled.
After leaving the ICU, she stayed on in the hospital for a week “bedridden with uncomfortable drains” in her body.
“I could barely walk. I didn’t recognize the helpless, hunchbacked, green, exhausted girl I saw in the hospital mirror,” she continued.
Months later, Alice is fully recovered and has decided to share her story and question what would happen to other kids who “don’t have parents who can get the phone number of the hospital administrator.”
“I still can’t believe this happened to me,” she concluded, “and I don’t want it to happen to anyone else.”
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