Jake Tapper's daughter Alice is reflecting on a medical crisis.
In a Dec. 15, opinion piece for CNN, the 15-year-old recounted her health journey, explaining how a misdiagnosis last year proved to be incredibly dangerous — and potentially deadly.
"It started one weekend in November 2021 with stomach cramping, a low fever, chills and vomiting," Alice wrote in the article. "Soon it became clear I needed to go to the emergency room. By the time I got there, I had low blood pressure, an elevated heart rate, intense abdominal pain and a high white blood cell count."
Despite being given IV fluids "to combat my dehydration," she noted that she was not getting better. At that point, Alice said she was transferred to another hospital, where her symptoms continued.
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"With guidance from my pediatrician, my parents told the doctors to check for appendicitis," she said. "But since I was tender all over my abdomen — not just on my right side — the doctors ruled it out."
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The teen added, "The doctors concluded that what I had must be a viral infection and would eventually just go away."
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However, things only got worse from there. Alice noted that at one point her skin even turned a "pale green" — but still, doctors weren't recommending anything other than Tylenol for her pain.
"My mom asked my doctors why I couldn't get a sonogram to see what was happening inside my abdomen; they said it wasn't needed," Alice recalled. "My dad asked why I couldn't get antibiotics; the doctors said for a viral infection they could do more harm than good. My parents kept pushing for a gastroenterologist who might have more insight about my condition to evaluate me, but one never came."
However, things took a turn after Alice was rushed to get an emergency ultrasound that finally revealed the cause of all her pain: a perforated appendix.
"When I learned my diagnosis, I was almost relieved," she wrote, noting how helpless she felt not being listened to by doctors. "At least the doctors now had a plan."
As she concluded in her essay, she's not alone in her appendicitis diagnosis, stating that it can be missed in up to 15 percent of children.
"It breaks my heart to think about the boys and girls who don't have parents who can get the phone number of the hospital administrator — who can't make their voices break through," Alice added. "I still can't believe this happened to me — and I don't want it to happen to anyone else."
Her dad, too, opened up about his daughter's health scare on his CNN show The Lead, saying "This could have happened to any child at any hospital in the United States because doctors are not sufficiently aware of how often it is that appendicitis does not appear in a standard way."
