A three-year-old girl, who was being brought back by her parents to the Regional Hospital, Mullingar, in February 2000, suffered cardiac arrest and died of toxic shock syndrome, the High Court in Dublin was told last week.
Sarah Mahon from Moyvore had been discharged from the emergency department of Mullingar General Hospital with a diagnosis of diarrhoea and vomiting, the High Court was informed. The child’s parents, William and Rosemary Mahon, were awarded €40,000 under a settlement of the action brought by William Mahon, on behalf of his wife and family, over the death of their daughter in February 2009.
The HSE apologised to the parents of Sarah Mahon, who died as her parents were driving her back to the hospital from where she was discharged about eight hours earlier.
The apology was read under a settlement of the action by William Mahon, Pottingham Commons, Moyvore, Co Westmeath, on behalf of his wife and family, over his daughter’s death. The terms also included a €40,000 payment to them.
The court was told that Sarah Mahon was first brought to the emergency department at 5.15am on 16 February, 2009, with a red rash on her trunk, vomiting and with a rapid heart rate. She died in the car as they were returning to the hospital at 1.30pm the same day.
The legal representative for the parents, Ms. Moorhead said Sarah died from toxic shock syndrome. The parents accepted that the question of whether the child could have survived that syndrome was problematic, but their main concern and what caused them particular upset was that Sarah was not given a chance.
“If she was not discharged, she would have been monitored, and there could have been earlier intervention, which potentially could have saved Sarah’s life,” she said.
Legal papers submitted for the defence made reference to Sarah having suffered from group A strep disease, which it said had ‘virulent and aggressive characteristics’. In rare cases, this can lead to toxic shock syndrome.
Ms. Moorhead said the aftermath of Sarah’s death was ‘horrendous’. “Resuscitation procedures left a lot to be desired, and dealings with the family left a lot to be desired.”
Mr Mahon told the court that their main concern through the process was that “there was a lot of focus on whether she would have survived if she had been treated.
“For us, as Sarah’s parents, to go back through this process, she could only have survived if she had received treatment.
She did not receive any treatment. That is based on gaps and lapses in her own diagnosis. We know it’s a difficult position. The percentages do not stack up, but if she had treatment, she had a chance to survive. Sending her home and asking us to give her water was not going to do it,” he said.
“It is traumatic to me to this moment that she had to pass away in a car on the way back to hospital, and my wife had to go through that.” It had taken seven years to get an apology, which he believed was too long.
“I want the HSE to develop some formalised approach where accountability and an apology is up front. Accountability and the willingness to apologise has been hard fought for, even though we engaged with the HSE from the start,” Mr. Mahon said.
They would have to live with this for the rest of their lives, but took solace from the fact that recommendations of an internal investigation into the case had been implemented, Mr Mahon added.
In its apology, read by Emily Egan, SC, for the HSE, to the court, it stated: “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Mahon. I would like to offer our sincere apologies to you and your family for failures in relation to the initial diagnosis of Sarah when she attended the emergency department. e offer our deepest condolences to you on the tragic and untimely death of your daughter, Sarah.”
Emily Egan, SC, for the HSE, said all recommendations of a review carried out after Sarah’s death had been implemented, including one regarding paediatric resuscitation.
In the action against the HSE, it was claimed, when brought to the hospital emergency department at 5.15am on 16 February, 2009, Sarah was suffering from a very extensive red rash on her trunk, had vomited and had a rapid heart rate.
It is claimed she was visually examined and diagnosed with diarrhoea and vomiting and discharged with advice to provide fluids and arrange a urine sample to her GP. As the child was being brought back to Mullingar Hospital at 1.30pm that day, she went into cardiac arrest, resuscitation was started but discontinued and she was pronounced dead at the hospital.
It was claimed there were failures to properly interpret the child’s symptoms when she first presented, to make or consider a diagnosis of possible toxic shock, to refer the child for immediate investigation or to treat her as an emergency case when she initially presented.
Approving the €40,000 settlement in the High Court, Mr Justice Kevin Cross sympathised with the Mahons on the loss of their daughter.
