“It breaks my heart to think Chloe may still be here if they hadn’t misdiagnosed her," Joanne Venton said of her daughter
Credit: Joanne Venton/SWNS
NEED TO KNOW
- Chloe Venton’s symptoms were repeatedly misdiagnosed as UTIs before doctors discovered she had Ewing sarcoma
- Her cancer journey included chemotherapy and proton therapy before she was also diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia
- Chloe’s mother is sharing their story to raise awareness about advocating for proper medical diagnoses and care
A teenage girl died of cancer after doctors continuously misdiagnosed her with a urinary tract infection.
Chloe Venton — from Swindon, England — was 15 years old when she started experiencing symptoms in late 2017. She constantly needed to use the bathroom and would wake up in the middle of the night sweating and “screaming in agony.”
“She had UTIs as a child so the doctors just brushed it off as that and gave her antibiotics,” her mother Joanne Venton told Southwest News Service. “Over the next seven months I lost count of how many times we went back to the doctors as the antibiotics weren't working.”
In May 2018, Chloe told her mom that her symptoms were worsening. The pain in her lower back was radiating to her hips, her lower body would go numb, and she was losing control of her bladder.
Credit: Joanne Venton/SWNS
Joanne, 42, took her to her general practitioner, but doctors still attributed her symptoms to a UTI.
“At such a young age these were not normal, and I knew something else was wrong so I refused to leave the GP's office,” she recalled. “The GP then sent us to the hospital just to shut me up.”
At the hospital, Chloe underwent blood tests, MRIs, and CT scans, which revealed that she had a tumor. Joanne and Chloe's father Gary, 43, started getting concerned as doctors kept her hospitalized with no answers.
Shortly after, Chloe was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Ewing sarcoma, a type of cancer that occurs in bones or in the soft tissue around the bones, according to Mayo Clinic.
Credit: Joanne Venton/SWNS
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“I'll never forget the next morning. Gary and I were taken to a small, cold white room and told she had cancer. It was a whirlwind from there,” Joanne told the outlet. “In my head, I thought she can't have cancer; cancer is for people that abuse their bodies or have a genetic condition. I couldn't believe in my head that my teenage daughter had it.”
Chloe required treatment immediately. She underwent 10 rounds of chemotherapy, proton therapy and an additional five rounds of chemotherapy. However, her condition was worsening and she later developed a rash — which doctors said was a side effect of her treatment.
“Again, I had to fight the doctors that something wasn't right,” Joanne said. “That rash turned out to be leukemia cutis, leukemia of the skin, and she was also diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow.”
Credit: Joanne Venton/SWNS
Acute myeloid leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that progresses very quickly, according to the Mayo Clinic. It requires immediate treatment because it can spread to other parts of the body and be fatal.
Following the delay in her diagnosis, Chloe died in July 2020 at age 17.
“It was a complete nightmare,” Joanne said. “In her final days, she said to me, ‘I'll never see my brothers grow up and get married and I'll never get to be the auntie I want to be', which just broke me.”
Credit: Joanne Venton/SWNS
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Joanne said her daughter had the “biggest heart,” reflecting on her strength and refusal to complain or cry during her cancer journey. She said she's now sharing their family's experience to raise awareness and encourage others to push for answers and advocate for their health.
“It breaks my heart to think Chloe may still be here if they hadn't misdiagnosed her at first and then missed the leukemia,” she told the outlet. “I want to talk about it so other people don't get missed in the system and end up losing their daughter like that.”
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