A heartbroken mum has claimed doctors ‘fobbed off’ her toddler’s swollen eye, dismissing it as holiday ‘hayfever’, only to discover he had leukaemia after she refused to drop the issue.
Carole Lawrie grew concerned about her son Hugo’s swollen right eye after they got back from a family holiday to the South of France in July 2023. When the now three-year-old’s symptoms didn’t go away, the mum-of-eight took him to a GP to get checked out. Photos from after their holiday show the young boy’s right eye partially closed with a lump under the eyelid. At first, the 40-year-old mum claims a doctor told her that her son’s eye was infected with a virus, before a second dismissed it as ‘hayfever’.
But not satisfied with the answers, Carole booked a third doctor’s appointment the same day, pushing for another opinion. It was at this point that Hugo was sent to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
Bloods were taken, then little Hugo was transferred to Edinburgh Royal Hospital where the family were given a devastating diagnosis after an MRI scan and biopsy. The toddler had acute myeloid leukaemia.
Young Hugo underwent three rounds of chemotherapy as well as a stem cell transplant at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow in a bid to rid him of the cancer. Thankfully, after this course of treatment, the tot is now cancer-free, with an MRI scan in January confirming he is still in the clear.
Now, Carole is urging other parents to advocate for their children’s health and not to be fobbed off by doctors, as she feels Hugo’s prognosis could have been a lot worse if she hadn’t pushed for him to be seen so quickly. Carole, who lives outside of Perth, Scotland, said: “When we got home from holiday, Hugo had a swollen eye and a lump under his eye.
“I just thought it was an infection as he had been absolutely fine on holiday. His eye didn’t look right so I wanted to get it checked out. I got an appointment at the doctors and they said it was just a virus and not anything.
“I’m not against the GPs but I felt like they didn’t take any notice of the fact that I thought there was something underlying. Two days later, Hugo woke up and his eye looked worse. I took him to the GP and they told me to keep cleaning his eye and it’s just a virus or hayfever.
“They didn’t think much of it. The GP felt the lump under his eye and dismissed this as hayfever. They said they would refer us to opthalmology but I wasn’t happy with this as I felt it needed to be looked at quickly. I rang the GP back and saw a third doctor that same day. I saw three doctors in three days.
“I said I was really not happy and he needed to be seen by someone else and they told me to wait for the opthalmology appointment in a couple of weeks and I said no. Underneath his eye there was a hard lump about the size of a five-pence piece and it was a little swollen like an infection.
“[Finally, at the third appointment], the GP then referred me to the local hospital to get another check up. The MRI showed that Hugo had a few tumours and they took a biopsy of the tumour under his eye as this was the easiest one for them to get to. He was then diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia which is unusual for children to get it. It was hard finding out about Hugo’s diagnosis.”
According to the NHS website, acute myeloid leukaemia is an aggressive form of cancer which requires immediate treatment and left untreated can be life-threatening. Carole says if Huge wasn’t referred to hospital when he was, his outlook may have been very difference.
“It is really annoying that the doctors fobbed it off as hayfever or allergies and it angered me a little bit,” Carole said. “I think so myself, if I hadn’t gone back [the third time] and pushed to be seen further, who knows where we would be?
“I would say to parents to keep pushing [at the doctors]. We had a few junior doctors come into the hospital when Hugo was there and I told them to always listen to the parents and to never dismiss what they were saying as we know our kids better than anyone else.
“I don’t know if it would have changed his diagnosis but had I not gone back [to the doctors] and pushed it, the prognosis might have been worse. It really annoyed me. You shouldn’t have to fight and push this hard when you know something is wrong. If a parents is coming at you saying something is wrong with their child, you should listen.”
In March 2024, Hugo was discharged from Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and has been enjoying life at home with his family ever since. Carole says Hugo will have to be on medication for life, but is a happy, healthy three-year-old.
“He’s clear from cancer now but they had to wait until we got a few MRI scans that said it was clear [to confirm this],” said Carole. “He’s out playing football and golf and loves riding his bike. If you didn’t know he had cnacer, you wouldn’t know when you look at him.”
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