Inquest into death of Aoife Johnston at University Hospital Limerick begins this week

The inquest into the death of Aoife Johnston has started this Monday, April 22, in Limerick Coroner’s Court in Kilmallock Courthouse. 

The 16-year-old died on December 19, 2022. 

The teenager from Shannon was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and developed sepsis. 

A Systems Analysis Review (SAR) showed that sepsis care national guidelines were not followed and this led to a 12-hour delay in sepsis care. 

At the time of her death, Aoife had an extremely long wait in the emergency department of University Hospital Limerick (UHL). 

Aoife’s death was the subject of an internal HSE report, which determined how long she had been waiting in the hospital’s ED. 

That report found that on the weekend Aoife died, there was only one emergency department (ED) consultant on call, and there wasn’t enough nursing and medical staff to deal with all of the patients in the ED. 

Investigations also found that overcrowding was a huge issue, as was a high turnover of staff. 

Limerick Coroner John McNamara has listed the inquest for four days - it is due to conclude on Thursday.