The inquest into the death of 16-year-old Aoife Johnston at UHL has raised ‘giant red flags’ about the standard of care at the Limerick hospital, Ciara Kelly has warned.

The inquest yesterday heard that the Clare teen died of sepsis after experiencing a 12-hour wait at the hospital’s Emergency Department in December 2022.

In emotional and harrowing testimony, Aoife’s parents told the inquest that they spent hours pleading for help as their daughter’s condition deteriorated .

Aoife's mother Carol said they "continually begged for help”, adding, “We watched our daughter die; I wouldn't wish it on anyone.”

Alarm bells

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, presenter Ciara Kelly said she it is impossible to imagine the pain and the suffering Aoife’s parents must have felt watching her condition deteriorate.

She said there are two aspects to Aoife’s story that should send “alarm bells ringing left right and centre”.

16-year-old Aoife Johnston died at University Hospital in Limerick in December 2022.

The first was that Aoife was referred to the Emergency Department as a ‘query sepsis’ patient.

“In other words, this was picked up hours earlier in the community by somebody going, ‘This looks bad,’” said Ciara.

“Sepsis is a really serious condition because it kills people and it moves really, really quickly and we wouldn’t send people in with sepsis or query sepsis very often.

“So she was clearly sick and it was identifiable that she was very sick from a much earlier point – so the fact that then she waited so long is crazy.”

Ciara said the second serious issue was that, under UHL rules, Aoife should have been seen within 10 to 15 minutes because she was a triaged as a Level Two patient.

Red flags

She said it took the hospital two hours to triage her and she was then left another 12 hours before she was properly assessed.

“Those two things alone should send alarm bells ringing left right and centre,” she said.

“Giant, giant red flags and I don’t know what needs to change in UHL so those types of red flags are not missed ever again.

“So that no one else has to be the family in the Coroners Court having an inquest like this and suffering in this way.”

The former practicing GP said Aoife’s story is terrifying for doctors and patients.

“Those two things, as a  doctor, actually shock me and frighten me because if we can’t trust, at our most vulnerable hour of need, that hospitals are the place we go to help ourselves and help our families, that is sort of a social contract unravelling in terms of the health service,” she said.

Shane Coleman in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk

Fellow presenter Shane Coleman said Aoife’s story is “absolutely horrific” – but warned that there are packed emergency departments up and down the country most nights of the week.

He said he witnessed a ‘harrowing’ emergency department himself in recent months when he had to attend with his son.

“The doctors and nurses in there were doing their best but you would have to question how we organise these things,” he said.

“Certainly some hospitals work better than others and we know that.

“Like UHL has been an outlier for some time , while Waterford Hospital for example doesn’t seem to have the same problem with people on trollies and Beaumont doesn’t seem to have the same problem with people on trollies

“So I would question how we run some of these hospitals and I am not sure enough has been done on some of that.”

The Aoife Johnston inquest is continuing today.