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Girl loses both legs after doctors mistake meningitis for ‘tummy bug’

A 7-year-old girl in England lost both of her feet to meningitis after doctors mistakenly sent her home saying she only had a “tummy bug,” according to a report Sunday.

“The damage was done within just a few hours,” the girl’s mother, Aimee Partridge, told The Sun, “Doctors then confirmed our worst fears.”

Little Brogan Partridge was vacationing with her parents in Cornwall in 2016 when she began vomiting after a day at the beach, according to the paper.

Her parents took her to an emergency room, where doctors misdiagnosed the deadly infection, she told the outlet.

“She did not seem herself. She’d had a sleepless night and was vomiting,” said Aimee Partridge, 28, of Birmingham. “They sent us home, saying she only had a tummy bug.”

But she later developed a bruise-like rash on her legs, and her parents rushed her back to the hospital.

Brogan Partridge's legs before the amputations
Brogan Partridge’s legs before the amputationsCaters News Agency

Doctors then found high levels of bacteria in her blood, which eventually caused her so much pain she was forced to have her feet amputated.

“We were devastated when Brogan had to have her left foot amputated due to the septicaemia,” she said. “We were later told told she will need to have her right foot amputated too.”

Brogan is now 11 and uses prosthetic feet.

“She is determined to get her full independence back,” her mom said.