Aoife’s death ‘line in sand’
CALL FOR URGENT ACTION ON A&E
THE Irish Association for Emergency Medicine said teenager Aoife Johnston’s harrowing death should be a “line in the sand” as it calls for urgent action on hospital overcrowding.
Aoife, who was 16, died in University Hospital Limerick’s underresourced A&E in December 2022.
Her inquest last month heard she waited 15 hours to receive antibiotics, despite having a letter from her GP that it was suspected she had sepsis.
Crowded
Now, in response to the harrowing evidence, the IAEM said: “It is absolutely imperative that Aoife’s almost certainly avoidable death in a grossly overcrowded and under-resourced ED is seen as a line in the sand.
“No longer can those who bear management and political responsibility for the provision of a safe environment that, at its most basic, requires sufficient acute bed capacity and appropriate staffing, hide behind the defence of ignorance of the catastrophes that unfold due to overcrowding.
“It is vital all play their part in supporting the work of the ED rather than seeing the situation that was laid bare so publicly at the inquest as a matter for the ED and the ED staff alone.”
The IAEM said it was “appropriate” that HSE chief Bernard Gloster accepted the organisation failed Aoife and her family. It added: “And equally appropriate Health Minister Stephen Donnelly offered his apologies and condolences.”
However, the IAEM said unless Mr Gloster and Mr Donnelly address the underlying national hospital bed capacity problem, “any utterances are empty and meaningless.”
Misadventure
Coroner John McNamara returned a verdict of medical misadventure in Aoife’s death from meningitis after she contracted sepsis.
He said it was “the only verdict” open to him after it had been proposed by Damien Tansey, senior counsel and solicitor for the Johnston family, and not opposed by barristers representing the HSE, UL Hospitals Group and management at the hospital. Mr McNamara added: “There were systemic failures in Aoife’s care and breakdowns in communication.”