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Aoife Johnston's death at Limerick hospital 'entirely avoidable'

Nick Rabbitts, 9 May

THE Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) said Aoife

Johnston’s death was “almost certainly avoidable”

Aoife died from Meningitis B after presenting at the emergency

department (ED) at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) with query

sepsis.

The teenager waited 15 hours and 15 minutes for what could have been

life saving antibiotics, if given earlier.

A verdict of medical misadventure was delivered at the inquest into her

death, which heard the evidence of more than 20 people over the course

of four days in Kilmallock.

READ MORE: Limerick council hopeful defects from Fianna Fail to

Independent Ireland over ‘ongoing games’

In a statement, the IAEM said the delays in Aoife getting “essential

care should never have happened.”

Describing a “grossly overcrowded and under resourced ED”, the

statement said their group wasn’t surprised by the evidence at the

inquest into the death of the 16-year-old.

“The only surprise has been how few of the many avoidable deaths have

come before the coroner’s court, given the clear evidence of increased

mortality and morbidity associated with both ED overcrowding and

prolonged waits for admission to a hospital bed for the approximately

25% of ED patients deemed to require hospital admission after

assessment and emergency treatment in the ED,” the statement read.

The statement refers to Dr Leandri Card and clinical nurse manager

Katherine Skelly, who both told the inquest they left University

Hospital Limerick after Aoife’s death.

“The moral injury sustained by staff who are placed in an invidious

position in attempting to care for patients in an impossible

environment is deeply corrosive and the departure of experienced and

enthusiastic clinical staff from the ED inevitably makes the situation

even worse.”

The group said acute bed capacity is “grossly inadequate.”

The IAEM have recommended that those admitted in the ED are not all in

the one place and instead shared across the hospital wards and regional

health area.

They have said that “concrete action” is needed to put weight behind

the apologies of the HSE, Bernard Gloster and the Minister for Health,

Stephen Donnelly, TD, and that hospital bed capacity must be increased.

They said that management and politicians can no longer “hide behind

the defence of ignorance of the catastrophes that unfold due to

overcrowding.”