Top tonsillitis symptoms as parents warned of danger after teen dies on holiday
Parents are being warned to look out for signs of tonsillitis after a 17-year-old girl died after the common illness turned into something deadly.
Leah Rogers, from Briton Ferry in Wales, fell ill after she visited Palma Nova on Majorca with a group of friends in May last year and soon her situation deteriorated. While normally mild, the disease, which sees the tonsils at the back of the throat become infected, is very painful and in some cases can have serious complications.
While common in children, teens and adults can also catch tonsillitis, with sufferers typically experiencing a sore throat, problems swallowing and a temperature. For some people the symptoms can be more severe, with swollen neck glands, and pus-filled spots or white patches on the tonsils.
When Leah returned home, it appeared she had a bad case of tonsillitis - a condition which had made her unwell multiple times in the past. Her parents rang the out-of-hours surgery and she was prescribed antibiotics but her condition kept getting worse. After being taken to hospital twice in the week after the break Leah was unable to eat or drink due to the pain.
Leah’s doctors told her family she had glandular fever and that it had led to an inflammation of her liver, resulting in liver failure. After being transferred to an intensive care ward she was put on life support and diagnosed with HLH, or haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, a life-threatening immune condition which causes the body to react inappropriately to a ‘trigger’, usually an infection.
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White spots on tonsils can be a sign of infection (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Leah passed away in hospital on June 7, just three months before her 18th birthday. Her heartbroken dad Hugh, 58, said: "The reality of the situation made us realise: never take life for granted. People don't realise what they have until it's taken away."
While the symptoms usually disappear within three to four days, tonsilitis can be more serious in some cases. If plenty of rest, cool soothing drinks and paracetamol or ibuprofen don’t help it might be time to speak to a doctor or pharmacist. Pharmacists can give advice and suggest treatments, like lozenges, throat sprays or antiseptic solutions which may help.
Some people are more prone to tonsillitis and get re-infections regularly, if this is the case or if symptoms haven’t gone within four days the NHS advice is to see a GP to get further help. More urgent is if you see the pus-filled spots on your tonsils or if your throat is so sore that it makes it hard to eat or drink - in this case it is best to call 111 immediately.
A doctor can do a throat swab to test whether it is bacteria or a virus which is causing the tonsillitis - if symptoms are severe or persistent they can give a blood test to check for glandular fever. Most children and adults get viral tonsillitis (caused by a virus), which clears up on its own, for bacterial tonsillitis (caused by bacteria), a GP may prescribe antibiotics.
In some cases people with severe tonsillitis that keeps coming back can get surgery to remove their tonsils altogether, but this is a rare last resort these days. The NHS warns that it is possible in some rare cases it might be necessary to call 999 - in the case of a condition called quinsy, where a pocket filled with pus can form between the tonsils and the wall of the throat.
The NHS website recommends calling 999 if you show signs of quinsy: you have a severe sore throat that quickly gets worse, you have swelling inside the mouth and throat, you have difficulty speaking, you cannot swallow, you have difficulty breathing, you have difficulty opening your mouth.
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