A mother-of-four died from cervical cancer after doctors misdiagnosed her

Ms Harvey only began the correct course of treatment a month before she died. Her family say the delay led the tumour to becoming infected, causing her pelvis to shatter

 

A mother-of-four died from cervical cancer after doctors misdiagnosed her malignant tumour 30 times in six months, her devastated family have claimed.
Relatives of Jeannine Harvey, 33, were driven to filming her screams of agony when she was eventually admitted to hospital.
The aim of the video, taken just a few weeks before she died, was to prove how ill she had been all along.

Scroll down for video. WARNING: Contains distressing scenes

To prove the agony Ms Harvey was in, her family secretly filmed her in hospital crying out in pain 'I'm dying'

In the harrowing video, released by the family, Ms Harvey, an accounting student from Rowley Regis in the West Midlands, can be heard screaming 'I'm dying'.
Despite more than 30 medical consultations, doctors had been insistent Ms Harvey was suffering with 'anxiety' from a suspected torn ligament.
She was only diagnosed with cancer just three months before she died in July.
Ms Harvey first complained about pain in her stomach and left leg in December last year.
'She was the type of person who would never go to the doctors but she was concerned enough this time to go,' said her sister Marie Donovan, 34.
After a blood test for ovarian cancer came back elevated, her GP arranged for ultrasound scans.
These revealed a mass about 4cm wide on the left side of her pelvic area.

 

Despite this, the family claim medics at Birmingham City Hospital told her it was just nerve pain.

Two months later she was told the mass had gone and she did not have cancer. It was suggested she had a cyst which had burst.

Jeannine Harvey had more than 30 medical consultations, but doctors repeatedly told her she was suffering with 'anxiety' from a suspected torn ligament

Ms Harvey was referred back to her GP for physiotherapy who suggested the pain could have been a problem with her back.
But over the next few days she collapsed several times and was rushed to A&E at Sandwell Hospital - where she was told she had a possible torn ligament.
Another MRI scan diagnosed protruding discs which would require more physiotherapy.
Ms Harvey was also told that the source of her pain was anxiety.
Her sister said: 'No one listened to us and the doctors constantly patronised us by saying it was Jeannine’s anxiety making her pain worse.'

Her family were so desperate for doctors to take her seriously that Ms Donovan even got down on her knees in one hospital, begging doctors to admit her.
Finally in April, her GP arranged for her to be admitted to the Medical Assessment Unit at Birmingham City Hospital.
It was only then that a nurse, upon seeing her condition and medication, assumed she was a cancer patient and she was finally diagnosed with sarcoma a few days later.
These are rare cancers that develop in the supporting or connective tissues of the body such as muscle, bone, nerves, cartilage, blood vessels and fat.
Around 3,200 new cases are diagnosed each year in the UK.

Her family say even this diagnosis turned out to be incorrect. In June, medics realised it was actually uterine cancer of the cervix that Ms Harvey was suffering from.
The mass detected in early January had now grown up to 8cm and was the real root cause of her illness and pain over the previous months.
To prove the agony Jeannine was going through, the family secretly filmed her on her hospital bed crying out in pain 'I'm dying'.
Further delays in confirming the diagnosis meant that chemotherapy wasn’t scheduled to begin until June 2012.
By the time Ms Harvey began the treatment, the tumour had become infected and shattered her pelvic bone.

Ms Harvey's family are taking legal action against Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. Her sisters Eleanor Sherrington (left) and Marie Donovan (right) claim her death may have been prevented with an earlier diagnosis

She was admitted to a hospice on July 13 and died 10 days later, leaving behind her four children, the youngest aged only two, and three sisters.
Ms Donovan said: 'The whole family are still in shock - the treatment Jeannine received was like something out of the dark ages.

 

Ms Harvey, pictured here with five-year-old son Frankie and pregnant with daughter Ella, now two, also had two older sons, Paul, 16, Jack, 12

'My beautiful sister was in complete agony, she was crippled with pain, but no-one listened to her.
'She was screaming out in pain day and night, telling us that she felt like someone was constantly stabbing her between her legs.

Jeannine Harvey was suffering from advanced cervical cancer but was repeatedly misdiagnosed with anxiety

'She barely slept for six months, the pain was so bad. It took two of us to lift her into the car to take her to hospital appointments, but no one there seemed to be able to see how bad she was.
'Jeannine was a strong woman, with a cracking sense of humour, who never complained about anything.
'For me to see my sister crying in agony, distraught because her children couldn’t bear to see her in so much pain was unbearable.
'Her wonderful four children have been left without a mother because no-one listened to her.'
She added that Ms Harvey’s children - Paul, 16, Jack, 12, Frankie, five, and Ella, two, are still struggling to come to terms with losing their mother.
Ms Donovan added: ‘If a staff nurse could tell immediately just by looking at her notes that it was cancer, I want to find out why the professionals missed so many earlier opportunities to correctly diagnose and treat my sister.’
Jill Davies, a medical negligence lawyer with Shoosmiths, representing the family said: ‘This is one of the most tragic and distressing cases I have ever seen and I believe it has national implications for the diagnosis and timely treatment of cancer.
‘Even if Ms Harvey's life could not have been saved, with an earlier correct diagnosis she could have avoided months of intractable pain. She had more than 30 visits and appointments with three major hospitals.'
Jessamy Kinghorn, of Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, said: ‘We are extremely sorry for any distress caused to the family. We can understand the family’s need for answers and an internal investigation has already been held into Jeannine’s care.’
Ms Harvey’s family have now set up a website: Justice4Jeannine.com