Annie’s Story: Raising Awareness of Meningitis
11-year-old Annie was fit and healthy. She was a talented and academically gifted girl with her whole life ahead of her. But, she sadly passed away shortly after being taken to hospital.
What happened to Annie?
Annie’s parents, David and Tracey took her to A&E concerned with her symptoms. She’d been suffering with a headache and eye pain for a week, and had complained about dizziness, vomiting, confusion, and a high temperature.
Annie was transferred to the Hospital’s Paediatrics unit that morning. But the sepsis protocol wasn’t instigated due to basic errors in taking her medical history and an incorrect observation. Consequently, Annie wasn’t given antibiotics for over six hours and her blood pressure wasn’t taken for another hour.
That afternoon Annie suffered a cardiac arrest – something David and Tracey witnessed. She was resuscitated and transferred to a paediatric intensive care unit at a different hospital.
Annie’s condition deteriorated overnight as she suffered further cardiac arrests. Despite the doctor’s efforts, Annie sadly died the following day. The cause of death was recorded as Streptococcus Pneumoniae Septicaemia and Meningitis.
David and Tracey requested a full investigation into the care Annie received. The hospital prepared a Root Cause Analysis Report and found several issues. A meeting was arranged with representatives of the Trust to discuss the findings. The founder of Meningitis Now, Steve Dayman attended this meeting with David and Tracey to provide support.
Annie’s dearly missed by friends and family, and a website was set up to remember her. The site has now raised over £6,000 for Meningitis Now.
How did we help?
Despite the hospital’s investigation, Annie’s parents still had questions about Annie’s care that remained unanswered. David and Tracey instructed us to investigate their daughter’s care.
Dami Oloyede from our Medical Negligence team supported David and Tracey to get the answers they deserved.
Following a review of the investigation report, Dami wrote to the coroner to open an inquest. Although Annie had died of natural causes, Dami believed it might have been contributed to by human error. The coroner agreed to open an inquest.
The investigation began and Dami collected a range of expert evidence. The day before the inquest, the hospital admitted liability for Annie’s death.
David and Tracey were appointed a barrister for the inquest. After hearing the evidence, the coroner concluded that Annie died of natural contributed to by medical negligence.
As a result, Dami negotiated a settlement that’ll support David and Tracey now, and in the future.
While nothing can make up for what their family’s been through and the loss of their precious daughter, David and Tracey can now access the specialist support they need to try and come to terms with what happened.
As part of the agreement, the Trust agreed to answer any questions David and Tracey had. This provided them with reassurance that lessons had been learnt following the investigation, and that other families would be better protected from experiencing something similar.
Our Medical Negligence team join Tracey and David to raise awareness of the signs of meningitis and why early detection and treatment are vital.
