UHL was a 'deathtrap' the weekend Aoife Johnston died, inquest hears

A consultant in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) who was on call the weekend Aoife Johnston died, described the emergency department (ED) as a “deathtrap.”

Dr James Grey was called by nurse, Katherine Skelly, to come in on the night of December 17, 2022, when Aoife was in the ED, but was “unable to come in.”

Dr Grey told the court that the “the only thing that would have worked” was if a Major Emergency Plan was declared. This would have brought in all of the consultants and more patients would have been seen.

He told the inquest on the final day of evidence that in relation to Aoife, “The system failed her, the ED failed her”.

Dr Grey said, “Had I known there was a 16-year-old child who entered the ED in septic shock, a category 2 patient who couldn't get into resus,” that it would have changed things.

He made the point that he was not asked to come in for a particular patient.

That weekend, Dr Grey said he was on call, had been in UHL during the day on Saturday, December 17, and during the day on Sunday, December 18, while also overseeing local injury units in Nenagh, Ennis and St John's.

He said he took a number of calls on Saturday, almost every hour between when he left UHL around 3pm and until that night.

When challenged as to why he didn't come in, Dr Grey said: “I'm not Superman.”

He described Aoife's 15 hour and 15 minute wait for antibiotics as “unacceptable”.

In an ED with 49 cubicles, he said: “Aoife Johnston had no chance. If she had been triaged quickly and seen in the resus room, seen within 10 minutes, like she should have been, she would have had a much better fighting chance – unfortunately she didn't.”

He said that what Dr Card did was right, but it “was 15 hours too late and that's the problem”.

Dr Grey described the ED as being “dysfunctional”, saying “patients were back to back on trolleys, every conceivable space was full of patients.”

The emergency medicine consultant said that in an ideal world there would be a consultant on 24/7, but that they would need a lot more consultants and contractual changes would have to be made.

He said it's still the case that there is one consultant on call at the weekends in UHL.

In reference to the 96-bed block being built, he said the hospital really needs “300 beds at least”.

Dr Grey told the court that since Aoife's death, there are still waits in the ED, but that category 2 patients are prioritised and there is a sepsis awareness campaign.

Aoife's cause of death at the inquest was given by pathologist Terezia Laszlo as being meningitis and skin rashes were identified at the post-mortem.

The verdict for the inquest is expected this Thursday afternoon.