A three-year-old with leukaemia contracted a serious blood infection and was left "fighting for her life" after a week in Watford General Hospital.

Mum Abbie Stanwix said she witnessed a string of "shocking examples of serious negligence" at the hospital, which she believes led to her little girl’s condition deteriorating so much she was admitted to Great Ormond Street and put on a morphine drip for a week.

Hospital chiefs have appologised to the family and are investigating the serious issues raised in Abbie's complaint.

Brave Bella-Rose was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in November. After two weeks in Great Ormond Street, the toddler was admitted to Watford General last month for tests.

Abbie, 33, of Crabtree Close, Hemel Hempstead, said: "My poor daughter is fighting for her life.

"Whilst Bella was in their care we witnessed several incidents, including one of gross negligence.

"Bella deteriorated so much that week and came out with these other conditions, if we hadn’t gone to Great Ormond Street I don’t know what would have happened.

"That hospital is not fit to care for a three-year-old with leukaemia, it doesn’t have the facilities and the staff are not trained. The things that happened over those five days were absolutely shocking."

Abbie, who has left her job to be with her daughter, said Bella was put in a special care room that was meant to have the highest standards of infection control because her immune system was weakened by the Leukaemia treatment.

But said throughout the stay Bella’s pain was under-acknowledged, the cause misdiagnosed, and it was not taken seriously or treated appropriately. Bella was constantly crying out in pain, and pointing at her stomach.

She also claims Bella was nearly administered the wrong medication, nurses did not wear gloves or wore gloves they had been wearing elsewhere in the ward and she had to ask for the room to be cleaned.

She continued: "I was absolutely shocked. It’s horrendous. Bella had no immune system. Given that and especially as she is only three years old she was in a special care room where the cleanliness should have been really good.

"Two or three times I had to ask for a cleaner to come in the room, nurses came in wearing gloves they had used on other patients or without even having gloves, food would be carried through the ward uncovered and brought into Bella’s room.

"One night a student nurse came to give Bella her medication, but she could not get it through the tube and said she was leaving it for the day staff. Two hours later I went out and asked if someone would come and administer the medication, but the sister had already signed it off as given. When Bella did get the medication it wasn’t even Bella’s medication.

"Bella then contracted a really serious blood infection. We went to Great Ormond Street for a chemo appointment, they took one look at her and were absolutely shocked Bella’s condition had deteriorated so much in such a short amount of time.

"They found she also had mucositis - she couldn’t even swallow her own spit. Watford just told me she had constipation, but she was seriously unwell. In Great Ormond Street she was on a morphine drip for a week."

Bella was re-admitted to Great Ormond Street for two and a half weeks after her discharge from Watford General.

Professor Tracey Carter, Chief Nurse, said: "We were very concerned to hear of the issues raised by Ms Stanwix in relation to the care of her daughter Bella while a patient at Watford Hospital in December.

"She has raised some serious issues which we are now investigating.

"In the meantime we have reiterated our infection control and drug administration procedures and policies to all the relevant staff on the ward.

"It is clear that we fell short of providing the standard of care which we expect for our patients and we have spoken to the family and apologised to them for our shortcomings, and offered to meet with them while the investigation is ongoing.

"We will be reporting back to the family with the full results of the investigation. We are committed to learning from this incident in order to help stop this kind of event happening in the future."

Bella’s parents, Abbie and dad Marc Leach, 32, are shaving their hair off to raise money for Great Ormond Street. The couple have already surpassed their fundraising target of £1,000 by nearly £3,500. To donate visit https://www.justgiving.com/Abbie-Stanwix1/.