I am starting this petition as I am disgusted and frightened to death that my daughter Isabella is not able to be kept safe at school. Bristol Children's hospital are refusing to train staff to administer a very simple LIFE SAVING injection, despite staff being happy to administer.

My daughter Isabella has a rare, serious and life threatening medical condition called panhypopituitarism. In short, this means that her pituitary gland (the master gland) does not work and therefore Isabella does not produce any hormones naturally needed for survival. To say that her early years were terrifying is an understatement. As a baby she rarely fed, slept or stopped screaming. However her symptoms were dismissed numerous times by various doctors (reflux, thrush colic etc.) I am sure that they suspected that I was an over anxious new Mum. One afternoon however, after yet another unsatisfactory trip to the doctors, Isabella stopped breathing several times and after resuscitation, she was given a lumber puncture and ended up in intensive care with suspected meningitis. Even when out of intensive care Isabella continued to be unwell and had episodes of stopping breathing. She needed her sugars and bloods taken every couple of hours for weeks and also had constant canullas fitted for various IV fluids. It was touch and go until an MRI scan revealed the defect. We have been told that Isabella is one of a few children in the world that survived having this condition from birth; that it is unbelievable that she was not a cot death. She is my miracle :-)

Thankfully, Isabella is now a happy 10 year old girl and is usually fit and well. For survival, she takes various daily medications including hydrocortisone 3 times per day. Hydrocortisone replaces the stress hormone cortisol which is essential for life. If Isabella were to vomit, break a bone or incur a hard knock to the head she would likely go into an adrenal crisis which could be fatal. If this happens, which it has in the past, Isabella needs an immediate intramuscular injection of hydrocortisone.

My issue is that schools do not have to administer hydrocortisone as they are not clinically trained. Fortunately for me, all of Isabella's previous care providers (pre school, primary school, brownies, gymnastics and guides) have been happy to administer her life saving injection, despite Bristol Children's Hospital refusing to show them how to give a very simple IM injection.

Isabella is due to start at secondary school in September and the staff are willing to administer Isabella's injection but legally they need to be trained by a nurse on how to give an IM injection. Bristol Children's Hospital are still refusing and my family and I are distraught. I am extremely angry and worried. Isabella should be able to be safe at school and enjoy her education without discrimination for a disability that she was unfortunately born with. I am going to do everything I can to get the law changed so that should her life be in danger, a member of staff could save her. She does NOT have time to wait for our already stretched ambulance service to arrive. I do not want her to be another statistic and then the law gets reviewed. Please help me by signing this petition. Many thanks in advance xx