Mother tells of pain over mystery death of her girl
‘It’s every parent’s worst nightmare’
THE family of a previously healthy three-year-old girl have told of their grief and pain after doctors were unable to say for sure why the toddler died.
Little Ella Martin of Blackrock, Cork, passed away in Cork University Hospital on September 14, 2015, the city’s coroner’s court heard.
Her mother Olivia O’Callaghan said that one minute life had been normal and then suddenly she was in a situation where instead of celebrating her 23rd birthday she was burying her child.
She told the court how Ella had been her normal self the day before her death. She had been sick but her mother attributed her ill-health to a stomach bug.
Ella was taken to hospital the following day where doctors treated her for a suspected case of sepsis but she died, the court was told.
Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told the inquest yesterday how a series of experts had been called in to ascertain Ella’s cause of death.
Among the experts was an endocrinologist, a chemical pathologist, a renal pathology expert, geneticists and specialists in paediatric metabology. Ella’s organs were analysed and nasal swabs taken for checks. Bloods were sent off for toxicology and the urine was checked for cultures. No abnormalities of any type were found.
Dr Bolster said every effort had been made to establish the cause of death. However, no bodily cause of death could be established. She said in rare cases, sepsis can be a cause of death without being identified. Sepsis is normally found at the post-mortem stage.
After the inquest, Ms O’Callaghan and her mother Christine said they still had a lot of unanswered questions.
In a statement the family said they still wondered if something could have been done differently.
They said: ‘The loss of a child is every parent’s worst nightmare. Ella was a beautiful and happy little girl. She was gentle and kind to everyone. We miss Ella every minute of every day. That is something we will have to live with for the rest of our lives.’ Ms O’Callaghan said her daughter had been ‘kind to every child she came across’.
She said she was living with an unknown cause of death for Ella when she expected to spend her life with her. ‘That there is no answers makes it 100 times worse. I didn’t think we would be leaving the hospital without our daughter,’ said Ms O’Callaghan.
Ms O’Callaghan went on to have another child, Maya, in 2017. She said she planned to show Maya videos of Ella so she could get an idea what her sister was like.
The mother had told the inquest how seeing Ella die has made her worry about losing her other daughter, Maya.
‘It would assist my grief if I had the answers. Ella was buried on my 23rd birthday,’ Ms O’Callaghan told the court.
Recording an open verdict, coroner Philip Comyn said it was a ‘very tragic case.’ He said it was his suspicion that sepsis was the cause of death of Ella but unfortunately the postmortem was unable to give a definitive cause of death. He said Dr Bolster had made an enormous effort to establish the cause of death.
Mr Comyn offered his condolences to Ella’s family of the deceased at the sudden loss. The court heard the case had no genetic background and would have no impact on the physical health of Ella’s sister Maya.
At the inquest, GP Dr David Lane said Ella had an uncomplicated medical history but she had abdominal pain so was sent to CUH with a query about possible appendicitis.
Professor Conor Deasy said Ella arrived at CUH at 2.41pm on September 14, 2015. She had vomiting and diarrhoea and was treated as an urgent case.
All clinicians felt she had a case of sepsis. Intravenous antibiotics were administered and tests were carried out. Doctors noted that Ella was not speaking but was responding to commands.
Upon cardiac arrest every effort was made to save her life. Professor Deasy said other diagnoses were considered in the case but they felt Ella had most likely died from sepsis.