THE PARENTS OF Aoife Johnston, who died after a 12-hour wait in University Hospital Limerick’s emergency department, have said a “part of us definitely died with Aoife”.
The 16-year-old died of sepsis after waiting on a chair for 12 hours in the hospital’s ED in December 2022.
Long wait times due to overcrowding and a breakdown in communication were among the issues found to have likely contributed to her death.
A report into her death by former chief justice Frank Clarke, published last month, found that Aoife died in circumstances that “were almost certainly avoidable”.
HSE CEO Bernard Gloster meanwhile said the report revealed that a “number of steps could and should have taken place which might have led to a more benign result”.
Gloster added that “accountability will be pursued” and as of last month, six people are facing a disciplinary process in relation to Aoife’s death.
Aoife’s parents Carol and James have been interviewed by RTÉ’s Prime Time and the interview will air tonight at 9.35pm.
Speaking about the night Aoife was admitted to UHL, her father, James Johnston said “there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t blame myself for not doing more later on during the night”.
Aoife presented to the hospital’s ED at 5.39pm on Saturday, 17 December 2022, and had a letter of referral from an out of hours GP querying sepsis.
However, the appropriate sepsis medication was not administered until between 7.15am and 7.20am the following morning.
This was a 13-and-a-half-hour gap, when the National Protocol on sepsis suggests that treatment should take place within an hour.
“I just didn’t think she was going to die,” added James.
“If I had known, I would have torn the place apart, but I just didn’t think that she was going to die on us. I really didn’t.”
Speaking about the loss of Aoife, her mother Carol said: “When Aoife died, a part of us, we definitely died with Aoife.
“Our life has totally changed for the worst, definitely.
“I don’t see happy days coming, I can’t see them.
“We try our best. We try and just take each day as it comes, but it’s very sad. It’s lonely. It’s different. It’s quiet.”
Carol also noted that “from the report and from any other investigations, a lot of it goes back to overcrowding”.
The report from Frank Clarke noted that there was an “exceptional level of overcrowding in the ED” on 17 and 18 December and questioned why decongestion protocols to reduce overcrowding were not implemented.
While the report found that the number of patients in the ED meant “significant overcrowding” was inevitable, it added that a failure to implement the decongestion protocol made the overcrowding “more severe than it should have been”.
“I suppose as Aoife’s parents, it’s very hard to accept that as the answer, that’s why Aoife died for overcrowding.”
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