A ‘DISGUSTED’ mum claims hospital staff put her infant son at risk of suffering brain damage after failing to diagnose him with anaemia.

Rachael Dawber, from Leigh, says she took one-year-old Harleigh Smith to the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan and Leigh Infirmary after he was struggling to breathe, eat, empty his bladder and bowels and suffering seizures, but was not given the correct diagnosis.

It was only when she went to Warrington Hospital after his condition deteriorated on Friday that he was diagnosed as being anaemic within hours.

She says doctors there told her Harleigh could have suffered brain damage due to a lack of red blood cells and oxygen had she not ignored the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary’s instructions to stay at home and wait for a district nurse to visit her.

Rachael said: “I am disgusted with staff at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary and Leigh Infirmary.

“My baby’s organs started shutting down because they got things so wrong.

“I took him to the Wigan hospital on more than three occasions and they kept sending us away, despite one doctor saying Harleigh had abnormal white blood cells and possible symptoms of leukaemia.

“I have not been able to sleep since then.

“The doctors at those hospitals have really let Harleigh and I down.

“It is heartbreaking what has happened to him.”

Anaemia is a condition where a lack of iron in the body leads to a reduction in the number of red blood cells.

Rachael added: “We now have to wait to see if Harleigh is going to be ok – we will not know if he has suffered any brain damage until he has fully recovered from how sick he has been due to his anaemia.

“I will only be taking Harleigh to Warrington Hospital from now on. The staff there have been brilliant.

“They got his medical records sent over, which showed that his iron levels had been dangerously low in his blood tests.

“With those blood test results Warringtion Hospital said his anaemia should have been diagnosed on day one.

“All the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary did was send out a district nurse.

“She was brilliant, but her aside I have no faith in that hospital at all now.”

A spokesman for Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the borough’s hospitals, said: “The trust takes complaints very seriously indeed and has a robust complaints procedure.

“However due to our obligation to protect patient confidentiality, we are unable to comment publicly on the treatment Harleigh received.

“Although we have not been contacted by Harleigh’s family, we would very much encourage them to do so.

“We will then be able to discuss the incident further and investigate all concerns raised.”