{"id":4309,"date":"2025-07-11T18:56:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T18:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/?p=4309"},"modified":"2025-07-11T18:56:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T18:56:42","slug":"after-being-misdiagnosed-with-a-cold-5-year-old-lost-her-life-to-a-treatable-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/?p=4309","title":{"rendered":"After being misdiagnosed with a cold, 5-year-old lost her life to a treatable illness"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Cassie Sutton was just five years old \u2014 full of life, starting school, and thriving. But what began as a simple sore throat quickly spiraled into a heartbreaking tragedy that could have been avoided<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But within three days, 5-year-old Cassie had completely lost her voice, leaving her mother Jasmine and stepfather Justin deeply worried. Cassie wasn\u2019t acting like herself, Jasmine\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/news\/public-health\/cassie-5-was-diagnosed-with-a-common-cold-she-passed-away-days-later--c-11840112\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">recalled.<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"newsner-3dfa178578d88b178b402c60e005b080\" class=\"newsner-3dfa178578d88b178b402c60e005b080 newsner-incide_content_once\"><\/div>\n<p>Concerned, the Australian parents took Cassie to a local doctor. The diagnosis was quick and seemingly straightforward \u2014 a viral infection. The family was told to simply wait it out, believing rest and time would heal their little girl.<\/p>\n<p>But Cassie\u2019s condition didn\u2019t improve. Instead, it worsened.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-breathing-became-a-fight-for-survival\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Breathing became a fight for survival<\/h2>\n<p>As the days passed, Cassie\u2019s breathing grew more labored, resembling what Justin described as \u201can asthma attack or the labored breath of someone with emphysema.\u201d Alarmed, the family rushed her to the emergency room.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-facebook wp-block-embed-facebook\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"fb-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=4643064865800696&amp;set=a.314027095371183&amp;type=3&amp;ref=embed_post\" data-width=\"640\">\n<blockquote class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=4643064865800696&amp;set=a.314027095371183&amp;type=3\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Despite obvious signs of distress, doctors again dismissed the severity of her illness after negative tests for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.newsner.com\/tag\/covid\/\">COVID-19<\/a>\u00a0and RSV. Once again, no bacterial tests were performed \u2014 and no antibiotics were given.<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsner-193452930\" class=\"newsner-article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"newsner-5df1044e5fc693262952ddf8f31a2432\" class=\"newsner-5df1044e5fc693262952ddf8f31a2432 newsner-amp_article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<p>Sent home a second time, Cassie\u2019s health took a devastating turn.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-the-hidden-danger\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">The hidden danger<\/h2>\n<p>What was missed? A common but potentially deadly bacterial infection: group A Streptococcus, or strep A.<\/p>\n<p>This infection affects millions of children worldwide and is easily treated with a simple course of antibiotics. A quick throat swab can confirm the diagnosis. Untreated, strep A can escalate rapidly, leading to severe complications \u2014 even death.<\/p>\n<p>Strep A often presents with a sudden, severe sore throat, fever, and swollen lymph nodes \u2014 symptoms that can be confused with a cold. But unlike viral infections, strep throat rarely causes coughing, making it easier to identify if tested properly.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-a-race-against-time\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">A race against time<\/h2>\n<p>Back at home, Cassie\u2019s condition deteriorated rapidly. Her lips turned blue, and she drifted in and out of consciousness. Justin began CPR, continuing for 10 to 15 minutes until paramedics arrived.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was going in and out of consciousness and had sort of collapsed in Jaz\u2019s arms,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Airlifted to Westmead Children\u2019s Hospital, Cassie was given every chance. Doctors performed CPR for 78 minutes straight, but the lack of oxygen had already caused irreversible brain damage.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until then that a throat swab finally confirmed the diagnosis: Cassie had strep A. The infection was treatable \u2014 but tragically, the diagnosis came too late.<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsner-2066068614\" class=\"newsner-article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"newsner-fdb5ec5c8af3543fc34876403741be5b\" class=\"newsner-fdb5ec5c8af3543fc34876403741be5b newsner-amp_article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<h2 id=\"h-a-powerful-message\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">A powerful message<\/h2>\n<p>Cassie\u2019s parents are left grappling with the pain of losing their daughter \u2014 a loss that could have been prevented with timely diagnosis and treatment. But rather than focus on blame, they have turned their grief into a plea for awareness.<\/p>\n<p>Justin urges, \u201cWhat I\u2019ve said to everyone is we\u2019re going to worry about those doctors later because that\u2019s a fight for a different day.\u201d Instead, the family hopes to raise awareness so no other parents suffer the same fate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cassie Sutton was just five years old \u2014 full of life, starting school, and thriving. But what began as a simple sore throat quickly spiraled into a heartbreaking tragedy that could have been avoided&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4310,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions\/4310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}