A teenage girl died after a catalogue of failings at a hospital already condemned for poor care.
Amie
Miller - who would have celebrated her 21st birthday this week - had
been suffering agonising headaches while completing her mock GCSEs.
The
15-year-old student began vomiting and fitting on November 16, 2008,
and was immediately rushed to Basildon Hospital A&E.
But she died within days of being admitted due to lethal swelling on the brain.
Last year a coroner ruled 'serious failings' in care at Basildon Hospital had contributed to her death.
The damning verdict came at the end of a three-day inquest at Chelmsford Coroner’s Court last September.
The
inquest had heard that Amie was given Propofol - a powerful sedative
blamed for the death of pop star Michael Jackson - despite it not being
recommended for people under 18.
The inquest jury also found medics at the hospital missed a string of opportunities to save Amie’s life in 2008.
In
a damning narrative verdict, they said staff had failed to take even
the most basic steps – such as checking whether she could open her eyes,
or examining the size of her pupils – which might have alerted them to
her injury.
After the inquest, Amie’s stepfather Mbarek Aitmarri said the past five years had been torture.
He
said the hospital – which is under special measures and is one of 14
singled out for having high death rates – had ‘evaded’ responsibility
for her death and had failed to respond to 81 allegations of negligence
they had lodged.
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