Anorexic girl ‘kills herself days after hospital release’
A SEVERELY anorexic schoolgirl stepped in front of a train just five days after being released from a top psychiatric unit, an inquest heard.
In a farewell letter to her family, 15year-old Pippa McManus had described how she wanted to ‘grow up and to have a life, but I don’t have one.
‘I cannot fight anorexia any more than I have done. I have tried so very hard.’
When the note was discovered, the teenager was returned to the Priory clinic, where she was being treated.
But five days after eventually being discharged, a family argument about her excessive gym use ended with her running from her home shouting: ‘I am going to kill myself now.’
Her body was later found near a local railway station.
Her parents had expressed reservations about her release, but felt they were ‘left with no choice’ but to agree with Priory medics, they told the hearing. They would have preferred that their daughter – known as Pip – was placed in another unit after her recovery stalled.
Her mother Marie told the inquest in Stockport, Greater Manchester, that Pip’s behaviour became a concern when she was 12. ‘She started getting obsessed looking at her side profile in the mirror, at her chin, asking if her chin was fat,’ she said. Pip became preoccupied with her diet and always wanted to exercise, Mrs McManus added. She joined running and boxing clubs and ate very little.
Her father James said medical advice was first sought around Christmas 2012 when things began ‘spiralling out of control’. She was treated by local mental health services before being detained under the Mental Health Act at the Priory Hospital, Altrincham. Yesterday Dr Janet Walsh, who treated Pip at the Priory, recalled her gradual improvement from chronic anorexia nervosa. In early 2015 it was hoped she could go home for three nights, but as she approached her ‘target weight’, she reported her mood was dropping, Dr Walsh said.
Pip told her mother she felt ‘disgusting’ but when asked if she would self-harm, she said she did not feel strong enough.
She was allowed a home visit in February 2015, but seven goodbye letters, to her parents, siblings and some friends, were found – with an item which could have been used in a suicide attempt.
She was returned to hospital. Asked why Pip was not transferred to a longerterm unit in Gloucestershire, Dr Walsh said there were very few options between acute care and sending patients home.
Pip was discharged on December 4. Following a row on December 9 about the frequency of her gym visits she fled the house in Gatley, Stockport. Her body was found near Gatley station.
Assistant coroner Andrew Bridgman told the jury they must consider the risks of Pip’s release from the Priory and whether it had been properly managed.
Mrs McManus has set up the Pip Foundation to help the charity Anorexia & Bulimia Care. The inquest continues.
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