Persistent Cough Hid Deadly Heart Condition That Killed Toddler

A grieving mother is warning parents not to dismiss a child's persistent cough as just a seasonal change, because that symptom hid a deadly heart condition that took her three-year-old daughter. Penny Dunn lived an active life until December when she started coughing around Christmas time. The problem dragged on into the new year and brought breathlessness. Her mother Courtney, who is 27 years old, sought help from a general practitioner who prescribed an asthma inhaler. That treatment did little to change her condition. By summer Penny's health had collapsed so badly that she began suffering seizures. Hospital tests later found dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease where the heart muscle enlarges dangerously and cannot pump blood effectively. Doctors performed major surgery to fix the damage but the organ failure had already cut off oxygen flow to her brain and other organs. Within weeks of the operation Penny stopped responding. Her parents faced the terrible choice on July 6th to turn off her life support machine. Ms Dunn, who works in a factory from Gloucestershire, explained that her daughter would have no quality of life if she survived because she needed constant intubation and a machine forever. She does not blame anyone since medical staff tried their best and noted many factors could cause this illness. About 4,000 Britons receive a DCM diagnosis every year in the UK where it remains a major cause of heart failure. While adults face higher risks generally, infants under one year old are at much greater danger. Experts do not fully understand what triggers it in children yet they know viral infections and genetic mutations play a role. Penny was the happiest, bubbliest little girl ever who truly became her best friend. She was just so happy and clever until that cough signaled something far worse than a cold.

She was never ill," Penny Dunn's mother claims, "I think she had had one cold before this in her whole life." That initial chill from last winter refused to fade. The family received news of a childhood bug, yet the cough persisted until vomiting began. By spring, visits to the GP became a constant routine. Walking upstairs to see the doctor left Penny gasping for air for at least five minutes. This condition is very rare in children, especially those over the age of one, as studies show.

Penny Dunn was kept alive via a life support machine since a heart transplant wasn't an option. The doctor said that procedure wasn't right for a three-year-old. Within a few weeks, Penny went from being really happy and running around to being lethargic and refusing food. Then, while taking part in her nursery sports day at the end of June, she suffered a seizure. She was rushed to her local A&E where doctors found her heart was beating abnormally and not pumping blood around her body effectively.

After medication proved unsuccessful, she was transferred to a specialist hospital where she was placed on an advanced life-support machine - and later diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy. Doctors performed surgery in an attempt to repair the heart's beating mechanism which appeared, at first, to result in an improvement. We were all so excited because she came out of theatre and her heart rate was stable. I thought our little girl was going to come home, that we were finally getting somewhere.

But the day following the surgery, Ms Dunn noticed that Penny's abdomen was unusually hard. What's more, her brain activity - as displayed on the monitors beside her hospital bed - appeared different. CT scans showed that parts of Penny's brain and bowel had sustained devastating damage due to lack of blood flow. The family set up a fundraising page earlier this year to help with costs of Penny's care. My heart dropped because I knew you can fix the heart but you can't fix the brain, says Ms Dunn.

Some patients with the disease recover with the help of a heart transplant but, due to the complexity of Penny's condition, she was not eligible. Even with a new heart, there was a possibility she would not survive, says Ms Dunn. The family were told the life support machine could save the little girl for a limited number of days and, eventually, had little choice but to decide to turn it off. Reflecting on the ordeal, Ms Dunn said she wished she had trusted her gut and pushed for further tests when her daughter first became unwell.

I don't want to scare parents, but she had a cold in December and it went downhill from there, she said. A machine that can spot abnormal heart activity should be in every GP surgery. Definitely trust your gut. If you're not happy, get a second opinion.