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The parents of one-year-old Lola Winchcole have been left heartbroken after their daughter died just hours after being discharged from hospital.
Toni and Matthew Winchcole took their young child to Beaudesert Hospital in Queensland, Australia, last month when they spotted that she was having breathing difficulties.
Lola, who would have turned two later this year, was also lethargic and throwing up repeatedly, sparking her parents to be even more concerned about her health.
Around 8pm on the day Lola first starting showing symptoms of being unwell, Toni and Matthew decided to take her to hospital after she developed a fever.
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As Lola was receiving medical attention, worried mum Toni told staff at the hospital that her daughter's breathing had become 'rapid', but the member of staff she spoke to 'didn’t really seem too concerned with it'.
Come 10:30pm, Lola was discharged from hospital - but Toni says the doctor didn't say anything about Lola's breathing and sent her home with Pandaol and nausea medication instead.
"He gave me the impression that he thought that she would just recover from a general virus," Toni told 7News.
Despite Lola's breathing still being 'raspy', Toni and Matthew were told she'd start to feel better once the Panadol kicked in.
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Once they got home, they put their daughter in her crib to sleep, with Matthew sleeping on a mattress on the floor beside her.
The next morning he got up to phone his mother and returned to Lola's room to find the one-year-old facedown in her cot and unresponsive.
Toni and Matthew called the emergency services upon finding Lola in her cot and she was taken to Logan Hospital - a different one she'd been treated at the day before.
Medical staff were with Lola for an hour before they gave Toni and Matthew the devastating news that there was nothing they could do for their daughter and that they found invasive group strep in Lola’s blood.
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Lola's cause of death is yet to be determined as Toni and Matthew are still waiting on test results and the coroner’s report, but now the grief-stricken parents are urging other mums and dads to 'trust their gut' if they think something isn't right with their child.
"If you’re at the hospital and they try to send you away and you don’t think it’s right... just stay there," Matthew said. "You don’t want to come home to this nightmare."
In regards to the care that their little girl received at Beaudesert Hospital, Toni said that the establishment 'failed Lola' and that they 'could have done a lot more'.
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A review is now underway at the hospital, with Metro South Health Chief Executive Noelle Cridland confirming to 7 News that they are 'looking into the care and treatment that’s been provided to this child'.
Metro South Health is the major provider of public health services in the Brisbane south side, Logan, Redlands and Scenic Rim regions, as per its website.
A friend of Toni and Matthew's has set up a GoFundMe for the bereaved pair so that they can 'take the time off work they need to grieve and make sense of this devastating loss for their little family'.
Tyla has contacted Metro South Health for comment.
Niamh Shackleton