Like most other nine-year-olds Lexie was a healthy and happy youngster.

Having recently moved from Wales to Abingdon in Oxfordshire, she was enjoying her new life and making new friends.

To the delight of Art and Vicky McConnell, their daughter was also a bright kid — the top of her year.

But the McConnell family changed forever when Lexie began complaining of blurred vision in her left eye, having been hit by a ball at school. Although a relatively minor eye injury, her treatment went tragically wrong, and she was dead within weeks.

Her immune system collapsed following a steroid overdose, an overdose of drugs licensed only for use on adults.

Lexie was prescribed 80mg a day of the corticsteroid, Prednisolone. According to the British National Formularly medical guide, however, the highest recommended dose for adults is 60mg.

High doses were given to Lexie for more than three weeks, although some specialists say in usual adult cases it is advised to restrict treatment to one week.

The ‘massive’ dose of steroids — which have not been thoroughly tested on children — was a contributing factor in her death, according to independent specialists reporting on the case some six years later.

‘Fundamentally, had there been adequate testing and sufficient guidelines in place prior to Lexie’s death, it probably wouldn’t have happened’, Art believes. ‘The doctors didn’t misprescribe Lexie’s medication intentionally, but it happened all too easily because of a lack of adequate safeguards.’

Lexie’s parents say their daughter suffered adverse effects to the steroids after only two days, which led to facial swelling and psychotic episodes, and despite their concerns she was not taken off the drugs — a combination of steroids and antibiotics.

A fortnight later her immune system was so low Lexie went down with chicken pox, and her father watched helplessly as she lost her fight for life in an ‘excruciatingly painful death’.

An inquest gave the cause of the death, in 1992, as misadventure, naming steroids as a contributory factor.

Since then, Art and Vicky have fought a painstaking battle for answers, justice, and their voice to be heard. The McConnells finally received an out-of-court settlement last summer, but Art believes the lack of a full inquiry is a ‘terrible injustice to both us and Lexie’. ‘Which is more important, a doctor’s reputation or a child’s life?’

Despite the years since his daughter’s death, Art, a former music tutor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff, is as determined as ever to campaign on the issue. He is calling for greater drug research, honest accountability among GPs to report adverse reactions, and, significantly, an improved prescribing system.

Referring to the Action Medical Research campaign, Drug Treatment in Children — Children are not little adults as ‘fantastic’, Art is encouraged that the charity has joined forces with the Consumer’s Association to give the issue the recognition it needs and deserves.

The McConnells appreciate the ethical concerns of ‘testing’ on children, but welcomes the commitment Action Medical Research has made in funding the projects in Belfast, where the team is studying the effects of drugs on children in a safe and controlled manner. The researchers are monitoring the effects of drug treatment as part of children’s routine clinical management.

Lexie’s death might just be the tip of the iceberg, says Art, and although he agrees that her type of case might not be a frequent occurrence, he asks: ‘How many children are being injured, for example, as a result of the drugs they are inappropriately being prescribed?

‘I’m sure, like me, other parents haven’t a clue that the drugs their children are being given have only been tested on adults. I can’t underestimate the impact of this vital health issue.’

Lexie’s death has completely changed the course of Art and Vicky’s lives, who have suffered emotionally and physically, including post-traumatic stress.

More tragically, they suffer the mental anguish of having lost their beloved daughter.