Dr Shardlow was a paediatrician based at Weatherfield General who treated four ill children who lived in or near Coronation Street.
Her first patient in November 2017 was Mary Taylor's grandson George Appleton. He had shown signs of an seizures for several weeks but an earlier visit to the hospital had resulted in a diagnosis by a doctor there as being a viral infection. Although tests were taken, George's condition continued, causing friction between Mary and her daughter-in-law Angie Appleton who suspected her Mary of being behind the undiagnosed problem. When George had a bad fit while in the hospital, Dr Shardlow and her team managed to stabilise him, pending the results of the tests. As Mary had been alone with him at the time, Angie accused her of harming the child and social services and the police were called in. After several weeks, George had another seizure when Mary was nowhere near the child, proving her innocence and Angie was forced to apologise as further tests were made. These proved positive and Dr Shardlow diagnosed him as having a severe fructose intolerance.
The next patient was of a more sinister nature. Jade Rowan had entered the lives of Fiz Stape and Tyrone Dobbs without revealing that she was the daughter of Fiz's deceased husband, the murderer John Stape. Unbalanced by the revelations as to her father's true nature, she fixated on her half-sister Hope and was determined to take her away from her parents by legal means and begin a new life with the two of them together. She therefore took any opportunity she could to poison the child's mind against her family and saw such an instance when Tyrone's small daughter Ruby pushed her off a bench in Victoria Gardens in January 2019, hurting her arm. Jade filled Hope's head with stories that the police would take Ruby away from her if they thought she had hurt her and persuaded the gullible child to claim that a door closed on her arm, thus causing Dr Shardlow to suspect she was being abused. Hope was sent for an x-ray which showed a small fracture. When Fiz arrived at the hospital, she failed to provide an adequate explanation as to why Hope had lied about the fall and further machinations by Jade, this time involving Doctor Gaddas, led to both Hope and Ruby being taken away by social services until the truth about Jade's plotting came out.
In May 2020, Oliver Battersby also started to fall ill with fits and seizures. After a second particularly bad bout, he was rushed to A&E where Dr Shardlow ordered an EEG and blood tests. His case was passed on to consultant Katrina Ward who eventually diagnosed the serious genetic mitochondrial disorder.
In July 2023, the doctor attended Bertie Osbourne after he had swallowed some of Gemma Winter-Brown's anti-depressant pills while she fell asleep while child-minding him. She asked father Daniel if he had exhibited any unusual symptoms such as nausea or vomiting, or had displayed signs of being lethargic or sleepy. When Daniel answered in the negative, and the doctor was able to look at the packet which had contained the drugs, she was able to reassure everyone present the drugs of that nature rarely caused a problem. She kept the child in for an observation but did warn Gemma that if the drugs had been sedatives, then the outcome would have been very different.
In May 2024, she treated Liam Connor after he overdosed on a supply of benzo tablets. Liam, a sufferer of asthma, had also been targeted for several months with intense bullying from the thuggish Mason Radcliffe at school. The situation had become so bad that he had investigated online ways to end his life. Although Mason was convicted of carrying a knife and jailed, Liam began to have panic attacks which meant that he was using his inhaler more often than usual. Finding out that Paul Foreman was on benzos to help alleviate his MND, he stole some of the tablets after finding out that one of their uses was to reduce anxiety and then self-medicated. He was rushed to the General after collapsing, but responded well to overnight treatment and Dr Shardlow told Maria Connor that all being well he could be released by the end of the day. She was unable to alleviate her motherly concerns that her son had attempted suicide as Liam had insisted on sticking to his story that he was only trying to reduce his anxiety, but the doctor did arrange for a member of the CAMS team to see the boy. As promised, Liam was let go later in the day when the drug had been fully expelled and the doctor told Maria to bring her son back in if she was at all worried about him.
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List of appearances[]
2017
2020
2023
2024