THE parents of a four-year-old stroke victim are still waiting for test results six months after their daughter had a scan.

Emma Brown, from Richmond, was aged just two years and nine months when she suffered three strokes in February last year. Her distraught parents spent two weeks at her bedside at Leeds General Infirmary, where she returned in November last year for an MRI scan to monitor her progress.

Mrs Julie Brown, Emma's mother, said the family had still not received the results of the scan, which were sent to London for analysis.

"We haven't heard anything," she said. "They just keep saying they are waiting for a second opinion. I have rung the Leeds hospital lots of times and they say they are waiting for the results to come back from London."

Mrs Brown and her husband, Lee, of Conan Gardens, had taken Emma to her GP a week before she suffered the first stroke because she had been clumsily walking into things.

An ear infection was diagnosed and anti-biotics prescribed and Emma appeared to improve. However, a few days later playgroup workers contacted the Browns to say Emma couldn't get up from the floor, was unable to drink milk properly and had trouble holding a pencil.

A doctor sent the family straight to the Friarage hospital, Northallerton, from where she was referred to Leeds. "She was in Leeds for two weeks and had all the tests, including an ECG for her heart, an angiogram, scans and a lumbar puncture," said Mrs Brown.

Although Emma has recovered sufficiently to attend Richmond CE school nursery, she still wears a splint, has regular physiotherapy and takes the blood-thinning drug Warfarin to reduce the risk of another stroke.

"Hopefully, she is improving, but we are really anxious about not having received the results of the MRI scan."

A spokesman for Leeds General Infirmary said there appeared to have been a breakdown in communication with Mr and Mrs Brown. "If that is the case, we certainly apologise for it," he said.

"A copy of the MRI was sent to a specialist in London for a second opinion in March and we still haven't had a response from her. We were warned it would take some time because she is very busy.