THE family of a two-year-old girl say medical staff didn’t diagnose her broken leg, only spotting it when she returned to the hospital a few days later.

Lacie Mae Williams fell awkwardly while at home in Newport and was taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital by her father Samuel Bishop.

But Lacie’s grandma Isabelle Stoneman said staff only x-rayed the youngster’s foot and so didn’t spot that she had broken her right leg. They told Mr Bishop to wait 48 hours and to return to the hospital if swelling hadn’t gone down.

She said Lacie was unable to walk on the leg at the weekend and was in pain leading to Mr Bishop returning to the hospital with the youngster three days later.

Another x-ray was carried out and the broken leg was diagnosed.

Ms Stoneman said: “I was going mad. I’m really annoyed.

“She was trying to walk on it but she couldn’t walk at all. She couldn’t put her leg to the floor.”

The family say they will now be putting a formal complaint in regarding the incident.

A spokesman for the Aneurin Bevan Health Board said: “We can confirm that we are in contact with the family in relation to the concerns that they have raised with us.

“We have a strict policy not to comment on the details of individual cases in order to protect patient confidentiality.”

He added that fractures can be difficult to diagnose in young children due to a number of reasons including that young children do not “localise” pain well, often present in hospital with “not walking” and that fractures can still be present in the absence of swelling or bruising.

He said medical staff try not to x-ray the whole limb in children as this increases radiation dose. If a child is not walking and has swelling over the foot then x-rays would be taken of this area.

If the x-ray was normal parents would be advised that, if the child was not walking after a couple of days, to return for reassessment. On return, x-rays of the lower leg would then be taken.