15-year-old schoolgirl died after 'doctor mistook tuberculosis for lovesickness'

Alina Sarag was seen by more than five doctors at four different hospitals but medics failed to detect the curable disease.

Her distraught parents even called her GP more than 50 times about their daughter's ailing condition over a four-and-a-half month period before her death on January 6 last year.

An inquest heard that her GP, Dr Sharad Shripadrao Pandit, accused her parents of "mollycoddling" her.
Shockingly, he even claimed her symptoms were brought on because she was 'lovesick'.

Her distraught father, Sultan Sarag, 43, broke down as he told Birmingham Coroner's Court: "The doctor said to her 'Did you meet someone on holiday? Are you missing him?'
"She found it very distressing he was suggesting she was lovesick for a boy.

"He said all the problems were in her head and she should see a psychiatrist or spiritual healer.
"When he said that in front of her it totally broke her heart.

"He said she was only doing it to keep me at the house nursing her.

"He [Dr Pandit] said 'It is because of you that she is making it up'.

"He said when she was younger my attitude had a detrimental effect on her.

"I was running around looking after her, nursing her.

"He said 'She's only doing that to keep you in the house so you don't go from there'.

"That's what his explanation was."

Mr Sarag also claimed Dr Pandit refused to test his daughter for TB.

He told the inquest: "He said, 'We don't need these tests, we are not going to get them done either.'

"As you tried to progress he just totally changed the subject."

Mr Sarag - who is also being treated for TB - told the inquest his daughter vomited up to 10 times a day and had to be carried to bed "like an old woman with weak legs".
He added that he made more than 50 phone calls to the GP's surgery in Birmingham but Dr Pandit failed to return his calls.

[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]