Tag Archives: Aoife Johnston

A SHANNON family is not happy with recent HSE appointments following the death of their daughter at University Hospital Limerick, a Sinn Féin Deputy has claimed. Aoife Johnston of Cronan Lawn in Shannon, (16) died of meningitis after a thirteen and a half hour gap between presentation and treatment where she attended the Emergency Department having been seen by a GP who queried the possibility of sepsis. Speaking in the Dáil, Sinn Féin Health spokesperson, David Cullinane highlighted a report in The Irish Times about Professor Colette Cowan and her appointment to a new role as a new Integrated Healthcare Area Manager in the Mid-West. Deputy Cullinane asked if Professor Cowan was among a small group offered such posts outside of a public competition? “Will the Minister explain why that happened and why it was done outside of a public competition? “ he asked. “Was the past performance of any individual – not just of one individual but of any …

The parents of Shannon teenager, Aoife Johnston, who died in University Hospital Limerick in December of 2022, will speak out publicly for the first time on RTÉ’s Prime Time programme this evening, October 3. Aoife’s parents, Carol and James, will speak about the night she presented at UHL with suspected sepsis and waited nearly 14 hours for treatment at the Emergency Department. A recently published report into the incident has confirmed that her death was “almost certainly avoidable.” “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t blame myself for not doing more later on during the night, and just… I just didn’t think she was going to die. Like, I really. I just. If I had. If I had known, I would have torn the place apart, but I just didn’t. Just didn’t think like, that she was going to die on us. I really didn’t,” said James Johnston. The official report into Aoife’s death highlights significant delays …

A Shannon family whose 16 year-old daughter died in an overcrowded Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) are demanding the immediate publication of a major report into her death. Aoife Johnston, Cronan Lawn, Shannon, died of meningitis in December 2022 after suspected sepsis that allegedly went untreated for more than 12 hours. Two months after the completion of an investigation into her death, conducted by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke, the Johnston family have expressed deep disappointment at the report they have been given, accusing the HSE of failing them and their late daughter again. Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime, the family’s solicitor, Damien Tansey, said the Johnstons consider the Clarke report as “utterly superficial”. Mr Tansey said that from the outset of the unpublished report, “it appears that the investigator, the former Chief Justice Clarke had a meeting with a senior counsel appointed by Mr [Bernard] Gloster” the HSE Chief Executive, indicating that there were “significant limitations and restrictions” …

The death of a Shannon teenager in the overcrowded Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) was “almost certainly avoidable”, a new report has revealed. Aoife Johnston, Cronan Lawn, Shannon, died of meningitis in December 2022 after a thirteen and a half hour gap between presentation at the Emergency Department having been seen by a GP who queried the possibility of sepsis and where the risk of sepsis was also identified by Nurse A who dealt with her, according to a new report. The Frank Clarke report was commissioned by HSE CEO Bernard Gloster after he received the report of a Systems Analysis Review (a SAR report), prepared under the HSE’s National Incident Management System (NIMS). Mr Gloster commissioned the Clarke report having considered the conclusions of the SAR and having determined that further investigation was necessary. At the start of his 247-page report, Justice Frank Clarke recognised this Investigation arose out of the tragic death of a sixteen year- …

University Hospital Limerick (UHL) Chief Executive Colette Cowan has stepped aside from her role as part of a disciplinary process arising out of a second investigation report into the death of Shannon teenager Aoife Johnston, a local lobby group has claimed. The Mid-West Hospital Campaign has alleged that Ms Cowan and other senior figures working in UHL are facing possible disciplinary proceedings over the 16 year-old’s death in an overcrowded hospital in December 2022. It is understood that Ms Cowan has vacated her role temporarily pending the outcome of these disciplinary proceedings. Aoife presented at UHL at 5.40pm with suspected sepsis on December 17, 2022. According to evidence presented at her inquest last April, the hospital’s protocols on sepsis, which require sepsis queried patents to be seen urgently, were not properly followed. The teenager was not triaged until 7.15pm that night, and she did not receive antibiotics until it was too late. She died from meningitis at UHL on December …

A Government review is to be carried out to determine if a second Emergency Department (ED) is required for the Mid-West region, a facility that will most likely be located in Ennis, if created. Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly (FF), this morning announced the review in the wake of a number of serious incidents at UHL, including the death of Clare teenage Aoife Johnston, and ongoing pressures at the ED at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). In a statement, Minister Donnelly said that the decision to close emergency departments in Ennis and other areas 15 years ago was “based on the very clear clinical advice at the time”. “The aim was to minimise the risk of a patient presenting at the Emergency Department whose time critical needs exceeded the capacity of the hospital, and specialties needed, to treat them. We also know that important services, including intensive care units, require a certain throughput so that clinicians can maintain their skills,” he …

The parents of Aoife Johnston, who died in a “death trap” emergency department at University Hospital Limerick, following “systemic failures” in her care, said today their daughter died a “horrible death”, writes David Raleigh. Carol and James Johnston said they wanted their daughter not to be remembered “as the girl who died on a hospital trolley”, but as “a happy, easy-going, happy-go-lucky girl, who went to school and did summer jobs”. “Our lovely 16-year-old girl and our baby was loved very, very much by us and her sisters,” they said. Following four days of harrowing evidence at Aoife’s inquest, the Limerick Coroner, John McNamara returned a verdict of medical misadventure in her death from meningitis after she contracted sepsis. It was, Mr McNamara agreed, “the only verdict” open to him after it had been proposed by Damien Tansey, senior counsel and solicitor for the Johnston family, and not opposed by barristers representing the HSE/ULHospitals Group and management at the hospital. …

An Assistant Director of Nursing at University Hospital Limerick, giving evidence on Tuesday at the inquest into Aoife Johnston’s death, agreed that the environment inside UHL’s overcrowded emergency department was “dangerous” for patients as Ms Johnston waited more than 12 hours for life-saving antibiotics, which it was heard were not administered in time. Aoife, 16, from Shannon, died at UHL on December 19 2022, following a series of delays in her treatment, the inquest which is being held at Limerick Coroners Court, Kilmallock, heard. Aoife presented at UHL on December 17, along with with a GP referral letter that queried “sepsis”, a life-threatening blood infection, which required “urgent” attention. UHL’s sepsis protocols, requiring patients to be seen by a doctor within 15 minutes, were not followed. Aoife was not triaged until 1 hour 15 minutes after first presenting. When she eventually made it to the emergency department she had to wait more than 12 hours to be examined by a …