A 12-year-old girl from Plymouth, England, endured six rounds of chemotherapy, home injections, and a muscle biopsy over seven years due to a misdiagnosis by doctors at Bristol Children’s Hospital. Faye Condon was initially diagnosed with Juvenile Dermatomyositis (JDM), a rare autoimmune disease, in 2019 after experiencing difficulty walking. JDM can be treated with chemotherapy drugs and corticosteroids to suppress the immune system.
Her mother, Christina Condon, told LADBible that the family spent Faye’s childhood in and out of hospitals, forgoing holidays and unable to make their home wheelchair accessible because they were told Faye would improve. However, Christina Condon expressed persistent doubts about the diagnosis, stating that all tests for the autoimmune disease came back negative and that doctors "just threw medicine" at her daughter.
Faye was later correctly diagnosed with Emory-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD) after being referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital. EDMD is a rare disorder affecting skeletal and cardiac muscles, leading to severe endurance issues, and has no known treatment or cure. Christina Condon stated that the correct diagnosis required a specific genetic blood test that physicians at Bristol Children's Hospital had dismissed, despite their firm belief that Faye had JDM.
Christina Condon suggested that financial considerations may have influenced the prolonged misdiagnosis, telling The Telegraph that "no one wanted to take responsibility for her and do more tests, as tests cost money." She lamented that if the correct diagnosis had been made seven years earlier, when Faye was still mobile, the family could have pursued more activities and holidays with her before she became wheelchair-bound.