Children's Health Ireland apologises for failures in care to girl (4) who died after presenting with a rash

Ann O'Loughlin

Children’s Health Ireland has apologised for the “failures in the care” provided to a four-year-old girl who died hours after presenting at Tallaght University Hospital with a rash.

The apology was read in the High Court as the little girl’s parents settled a High Court action over her death.

The child or her family cannot be identified by order of the court.

The family’s counsel, Jeremy Maher, instructed by Arthur Cox solicitors, told the court the girl’s mother had discovered a rash on her daughter and she was taken to hospital by ambulance on February 12th, 2018.

Counsel said the mother raised the possibility of meningitis but was repeatedly dismissed, and a respiratory tract infection was diagnosed.

The child was treated, but her condition deteriorated, and she was transferred to another hospital for urgent assessment. It is claimed attempts to treat the child’s meningitis were unsuccessful, and she died in the early hours of February 13, 2018. The cause of death was meningococcal sepsis.

Counsel said it was their case if the protocol around sepsis and meningitis had been followed, the little girl would be alive today.

An expert on their side would say the child’s condition should have been identified and that there were “multiple amber and red flags”

Maher said the little girl was an extraordinary child who will never be forgotten.

In a letter of apology read to the court by Conor Halpin SC for Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), it offered sincere apologies to the parents following the unexpected death of their daughter on February 13th, 2018.

“Children's Health Ireland would like to sincerely apologise for the failures in the care provided to her and to confirm that it is committed to learning from her death,” it added.

In the letter, which was signed by chief executive Lucy Nugent, CHI said it acknowledges and is profoundly sorry for "the ongoing distress that this has caused to you and your family, and we extend our deepest condolences.”

In the proceedings brought by the little girl’s mother and father, it was claimed there was a failure to have any regard for the little girl's symptoms and presentation at the hospital and a failure to initiate proper or sufficient sepsis procedures.

It was further claimed there was a failure to recognise the girl's physical and clinical indicators of sepsis or meningococcaemia on time.

It was also claimed there was a failure to have any or any adequate regard to concerns expressed by the mother about her child's condition or symptoms and a failure to heed the mother that her daughter may be suffering from meningitis.

A situation it was contended to have been caused where the child was not diagnosed promptly, and there was a failure to ensure that there was any proper, adequate or effective system of monitoring, supervision, or overview of the little girl and her condition.

Noting the settlement, Judge Paul Coffey extended his deepest sympathy to the family.