A teenage girl died suddenly from cancer after initially being diagnosed with a chest infection, an inquest has heard.
Tanisha Baverstock had been suffering from a persistent cough, breathlessness and weight loss for a few weeks when her mother, Kelly, took her to see her GP.
The doctor diagnosed a chest infection, prescribed antibiotics and an inhaler, and ordered a blood test to be carried out, the hearing at Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner's Court heard.
The blood test revealed "there was something in her blood" and Tanisha was referred to Salisbury District Hospital, where further tests highlighted a "change in her lungs".
On the evening of January 30 last year, Ms Baverstock drove her 13-year-old daughter to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, where she was diagnosed with cancer.
Tanisha, from Calne, Wiltshire, died less than 24 hours later after collapsing during a procedure to drain her heart of excess fluid.
Describing her daughter's last moments, Ms Baverstock told the inquest: "They said the next 48 hours would be quite crucial. I went into the theatre blinded.
"I didn't think my daughter was going to die and I would see her in the intensive care unit. I wasn't told there was a risk.
"If I had known my daughter was going to die, I would have had chance to say goodbye - that was taken away from me."
Ms Baverstock said she accompanied her daughter to the operating theatre for the procedure, which would be carried out with Tanisha awake.
"She made a suffocating noise and I was holding her hand and she said 'Mum, Mum, Mum'," she said.
"She started making this really loud roar sound and the alarms went off and she started making this roar sound and the nurses asked me to leave.
"I took two steps back and that's when I saw her head slump and her eyes were wide open and her tongue flop and I knew she was dead.
"When you see that face you know there is no coming back from that."
She added: "I remember asking the question how long Tanisha had cancer for and I was told two weeks.
"I was told when they opened her up and she was completely riddled with cancer and her heart had haemorrhaged and she was going to die anyway today.
"I remember thinking that if she was going to die anyway why would you do the operation?"
Ms Baverstock took Tanisha to see Dr Martin Allen at Salisbury Medical Practice on December 31, 2018.
The court heard there was a dispute between Dr Allen and Ms Baverstock as to whether he told her the blood test was urgent and that a follow-up telephone call was planned on January 3 to discuss the results.
Dr Allen said he attempted to phone Ms Baverstock on January 3, 7, 13 and 14 2019 but was unable to contact her. He then wrote her a letter.
It later emerged that the surgery did not have the correct telephone number or address for Tanisha's mother on their records.
In a further appointment with Dr Allen on January 25, 2019, he suggested Tanisha had tuberculosis and wanted her to be seen by specialists at Salisbury District Hospital.
Tanisha's symptoms continued and she developed a lump in her neck in the days before she was due at the hospital for the outpatients appointment on January 29, 2019.
While at the hospital waiting to see the doctors, Tanisha was struggling to breathe.
"At this point I was really concerned about her and I thought we were in the right place with her," Ms Baverstock told the court.
"The doctor said it was viral. When I mentioned the blood test, he said it wasn't anything to worry about. I will not forget those words until the day I die."
Tanisha was prescribed a different type of antibiotic and sent for a chest X-ray.
Ms Baverstock said the X-ray showed "changes in her lungs" and that the hospital wanted to see her daughter again in four weeks' time.
The following day a doctor rang Ms Baverstock to say her daughter's X-ray had been reviewed and there was something "very nasty on her lungs and the next 24 hours were quite crucial".
Ms Baverstock told the hearing that someone was to phone to tell her to take Tanisha to hospital in either Bristol or Bath.
She rejected the suggestion that she was told to take her immediately to Salisbury District Hospital as any delay could prove fatal.
"If someone is telling you that you are definitely going to process that," she said.
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust said: “We would again like to offer our deepest condolences to Tanisha’s family and friends at this difficult time. Whilst the inquest is underway, we are unable to comment further.”
