Harrowing account of Martha Mill's death at 13 in Guardian today

[StaplesCorner]

I don't think there's another thread on this already I did a search, but I think this needs to be widely read - there seems to have been no lack of NHS resources here whatsoever, but consultants' arrogance by the spade; shades of This is Going to Hurt? Every parents' worst nightmare:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/sep/03/13-year-old-daughter-dead-in-five-weeks-hospital-mistakes

Absolutely heartbreaking, my sil died of Sepsis because her family thought she had flu ,and didn't seek medical treatment, but to think this poor girl was in hospital surrounded by experts it's shocking this happened.

Absolutely heartbreaking read.

One of the things that will stick in my mind was that a consultant advised against review by the intensive care unit because it would only make the mother more anxious. If the intensive care unit had reviewed it very possibly would have saved her life.

Reading that, I also find it hard to believe that the mother shouting louder would have made a difference. Very possibly it would just have led to more efforts by the hospital to "manage" her, at the expense of her daughter's care. Which is exactly the kind of fear that stops you shouting louder in the first place.

Such a harrowing story and I was reading it through tears.

I hope they sue the NHS, King’s and the consultant for medical negligence.

That poor child and her family.

I read it this morning and cried. It’s so well written. That poor family.

So utterly, utterly dreadful.

I hope against hope I never join that island and I pray she manages to find some peace.

These people are skilled professionals but everyone is fallible. This will remind me in the future to always double check and challenge.

Being a nurse, I'd be very interested in what the nursing team really thought and had documented.

I work in Theatre Recovery and on several occasions over the years l have gone "above" the attending doctor and found someone more senior as l have not been happy with the decisions that are being made.

However, that confidence comes with years of experience.

The GMC will close ranks and the hospital spout the usual "learn from mistakes and new procedures are in place" rubbish...but quite frankly it's all crap and just a way to appease the public.

Policies and procedures were already in place for this situation but weren't adhered too.

Some Dr's are absolutely hideous and belittle anyone they can. This results in them not being challenged on decisions.

Civility saves lives.

Absolutely bloody awful. I treated a patient this week with sepsis who had gone 2 weeks without the correct treatment because 2 other clinicians had said this patient would be ok on oral antibiotics but really couldn't be bothered to do all the referral paperwork/follow the correct pathways as they were snowed under. I admitted this person to hospital immediately and they fortunately survived and put a formal complaint in against the staff involved.
Always question, always make a fuss, don't let anyone fob you off.

I realize this is written from the mother’s point of view. But I do wonder if it had been her husband demanding a review/second opinion, if the outcome would have been different.

What a harrowing story. Poor family.

from the very start a catalogue of errors. A handlebar injury in a child plus bruising in the abdomen should have immediately been seen by a doctor. The doctor on the phone said “internal bruising” but didn’t need to see. Bruising is bleeding and they had no way of assessing where it was from. The fact the the increasing BPEWS wasn’t escalated to PICU for review is shocking and against any hospital policy is negligent.

Gut wretching. Absolutely no shred of words or comfort. What a failure of care. Just can't.

This was nothing to do with under staffing or stressed doctors with not enough resources.

There are no excuses. Zero. Stop scraping the barrel to make excuses just because you dont want to blame the actual staff for their totally preventable mistakes due to arrogance and wanting their bank holidays.

That is one of the saddest things I’ve ever read. The description of being on an island that you can never leave. RIP Martha

@StaplesCorner had me in tears. Such a waste. So much pain - avoidable.

This smacks of the ‘hierarchy in the cockpit’ that airlines suffered for so long (many air crashes causes because nobody would challenge the captain). Medical teams - everyone should have a voice. They need the same training to ensure this can never happen. That poor family. The poor sister. Just awful.

Chilling. That poor child, and her surviving family. Horrific.

I was the subject of a monumental hospital blunder, and the only reason I am alive is because I fought and argued for my care. There was a PALS case 2 years after it all started (they took a loooong time to process the case....) and at the hearing, the consultants started out by verbally attacking me, very much in the offense. It was horrific. Terrible closing ranks.

The avoidable loss of a precious young life is just so devastating 💔

Jesus. That's such a devastating read, that poor girl was clearly terrified.

Don't know what else to say, this has properly shocked me.

That poor kid. You get such an image of her from her mother. Such a harrowing article.

God what a horror story, that poor girl. I bet her mum replays every moment of that story wondering how she could’ve changed it. Not her fault at all. NHS care is a shambles.

This is so sad. The life saving care was available, there are no excuses.

My brother died almost a month ago from Sepsis (other cause of death was acute kidney injury and something about lack or red and white blood cells and platelets) . Reading this has made me feel awful as there were some similarities that I didn't realise were sepsis symptoms like bleeding/fluid from injection sites. I was told he was "very very poorly" and had an infection but was never told Sepsis specifically. The medication my brother was on due to his disability killed his immune system so in hindsight I should have thought of sepsis and pushed for more care. He was taken to hospital on the Thursday night was put on a ward in ambulatory care on the Friday lunchtime at some point he was moved to the Rhueamatology ward where he he died in the Sunday lunchtime.

Should he have been moved to intensive care? Should he have had better care or someone else intervene? As there anything else that could have been done to try and save him or was it already too late and he would have died anyway? I don't know and I'll never know now 😭

Harrowing and chilling. You really don't want to be in a serious condition on a Friday afternoon under the NHS, especially not on. BH weekend!

That's sad to read,has there been an inquest?

Killed my DP
We clapped for these tossers.

A harrowing read, and important for clinicians to read things like this and understand how important it is to have the confidence to be the person who puts their head above the parapet and stops the line when something doesn’t feel right. But did anyone involved in these ever even get the feeling that things weren’t right? Poor, poor Martha and her family.

I referred a patient to a paediatrician yesterday, I was worried about looking silly or dramatic, and I just had to steel myself and say “I’m sorry, I might be over reacting, I can’t work out exactly what is wrong, but I’m worried about this child, he looks sick, but his examination and vital signs don’t really support that. I’m not sure what to do next, but I don’t want to send him home”. Thankfully she said “If you’re worried, I’m worried, bring him up to me now and I’ll have a look”.

Thank you for this. I imagine most people wouldn't be brave enough to put in a formal complaint against a colleague