A teenager has revealed how Wollongong Hospital refused a procedure that would have detected her deadly brain tumour.Cassie Nascimento was on the receiving end of a near-fatal decision as a patient in the hospital's emergency department in August last year.The then 16-year-old was cross-eyed, nauseous and experiencing head, shoulder and neck pain when she arrived at the hospital with a referral letter penned by the family doctor.Cassie was given heavy-duty pain medication during the four hours she waited with her mother, Gloria Nascimento, to see a doctor.Later, a registrar refused to authorise an MRI scan, believing the symptoms were stress-related.The Kanahooka teenager was then discharged.Within a week, Cassie was in a Prince of Wales Hospital operating theatre having a massive tumour removed by neurosurgeon Charlie Teo. The tumour was only discovered because Mrs Nascimento sought a private MRI scan five days after her daughter was refused one at Wollongong Hospital.‘‘If I hadn’t organised that second scan my daughter wouldn’t have survived,’’ Mrs Nascimento told the Mercury yesterday.‘‘That doctor has to know she could have died because he didn’t come out and check on her.‘‘I slept beside Cassie for five nights after we went to the hospital because I didn’t know if she would make it through, that’s how sick she was.‘‘I know so much now, I could have driven her to Sydney, there are so many things I could have done, but at that time I was following the advice of an emergency department telling me she’s fine, she’s just stressed.’’The bungle has triggered a clinical investigation by the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health Network.‘‘Without pre-empting the outcome of that review, we have extended our sincere apologies to Cassandra and her family,’’ a spokeswoman said yesterday.The health network has pledged to keep the Nascimento family fully informed of the progress of the review and its outcomes.Mrs Nascimento said there was a need for an immediate public inquiry into Wollongong Hospital.‘‘When we were in emergency, the nurses said to us ‘we’re sorry, but this is what happens here all the time, we just don’t have the staff, we don’t have the facilities’,’’ she said.‘‘Now, if anything happened to any of my family, I would go straight to Sydney.’’Cassie has undergone an exhaustive treatment regime to beat the tumour, including seven weeks of radiotherapy to the brain and spine, four months of intensive chemotherapy and six blood transfusions.She is tube fed, has lost her hair and has not been to school since September.Cassie described the Wollongong Hospital visit as the most distressing period of her illness.‘‘The worst part was them sending me home telling me I was fine,’’ she said.‘‘They sent me home and said I was fine and that made me think I was fine.’’It will be another five years before Cassie can be confident she is cancer-free.Mrs Nascimento said her daughter was an inspiration. ‘‘She’s the bravest person I have ever met, honestly, she’s my hero,’’ she said.‘‘I said to Cassie one day ‘I wish it was me’ and she said ‘mum, you couldn’t handle it, I’m glad it was me’.‘‘I don’t think we could have made it if Cassie wasn’t so positive, she is my little hero and my husband calls her the light of our lives.’’Mrs Nascimento thanked family, friends and Prince of Wales Hospital and Sydney Children’s Hospital staff for their support since the diagnosis.