 A mum was left 'terrified' when her six-year-old daughter received a shock diagnosis after falling over at a birthday party. Leeanne Taggart, from Glasgow, 'never thought much of it' when her daughter, Keavagh, took a tumble at the first birthday party in August 2022. The little one got up quickly and carried on playing with friends. But weeks later, Keavagh continued to experience pain and received the shock diagnosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, a rare form of the condition that left her unable to walk without crutches. 'It was a lonely place to be because I'd never heard of a child having arthritis before,' mum Leeanne said. 'It's something you just automatically associate with older people, not kids.' It wasn't the diagnosis they were expecting (Picture: Caters News Agency) At first, the fall didn't seem like a big deal, but the next day, Keavagh said her knee was still hurting and it looked very swollen. 'We just assumed she'd sprained or twisted it, so we took her to A&E where she had an X-ray,' said Leeanne. 'They found fluid around her knee, so gave her some painkillers and told us that a physio would be in touch. However, within two weeks, it had become so much worse and Keavagh couldn't walk and wasn't eating, so she lost so much weight. 'There was a lot of back and forth to the hospital, but we eventually got an MRI for Keavagh, as well as a face-to-face appointment with a physiotherapist who referred to her rheumatology.' Keavagh's knees which led to her diagnosis (Picture: Caters News Agency) By October, Keavagh received the diagnosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, which Leeanne says impacts around one in 1,000 children. 'All I could think was, how can my six-year-old have arthritis? I made the mistake of googling it and came across lots of horror stories,' she said. 'It was terrifying.' Keavagh had to take time off school and temporarily quit her favourite hobbi){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
A mum was left ‘terrified’ when her six-year-old daughter received a shock diagnosis after falling over at a birthday party.
Leeanne Taggart, from Glasgow, ‘never thought much of it’ when her daughter, Keavagh, took a tumble at the first birthday party in August 2022. The little one got up quickly and carried on playing with friends.
But weeks later, Keavagh continued to experience pain and received the shock diagnosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, a rare form of the condition that left her unable to walk without crutches.
‘It was a lonely place to be because I’d never heard of a child having arthritis before,’ mum Leeanne said.