Mum concerns 'dismissed' before baby death - inquest

The mother of a five-month-old girl who died in hospital has told a jury that mistakes made by doctors during her care were "unforgivable".

Lynsey Carr told an inquest into the death of Esta High how her growing concerns were "dismissed multiple times" over a 15-hour period, with doctors thinking her symptoms were due to Covid.

Wakefield Coroner's Court heard how Esta was a "happy, healthy, smiling girl" before she became ill on 31 October 2023.

Carr told the inquest jury on Thursday how Esta's condition deteriorated at Leeds General Infirmary, but her and Esta's father Leon High's concerns were not listened to.

Her parents took her to the hospital's emergency department due to a high temperature and vomiting, and she later tested positive for Covid.

Carr said the family, from Leeds, was put in a side room at the hospital's children's assessment and treatment (CAT) unit where she believed staff were more concerned with isolating Esta due to the Covid risk.

Carr said she and High refused advice from doctors to take Esta home as she had a temperature that reached more than 40 degrees and she would not stop vomiting.

She said her daughter later developed a rash and her arm started shaking, which she feared was a seizure.

Carr told the jury "we were extremely worried" and "we kept asking for help", but "staff were rude and don't listen to our concerns".

She said her daughter's symptoms should have been seen as a high risk of sepsis.

If the correct treatment had been started at this stage, she said "the damage to Esta's brain could have been limited, reduced or not happened at all".

She said that Esta's time on the CAT unit was "15 hours that were filled with missed opportunities".

Carr told the jury that her daughter's grunting noises were put down to being "just uncomfortable with Covid".

The family's concerns over the arm shaking, which they captured on video, were "dismissed on multiple occasions", she said.

"Staff ignoring this is unforgivable," Carr added.

If the junior doctor had "showed more urgency" or called for an opinion from a more senior colleague "this could have saved Esta's life", she told the inquest.

By late afternoon on 2 November, Esta could not be roused and the jury heard how scans and other tests showed evidence of meningoencephalitis and streptococcus pneumoniae.

Esta was taken to intensive care and attempts were made to save her life, the hearing was told.

Carr said: "After 55 hours of no concerns at all, there were doctors running in and out of the room in a frenzy.

"The room was full of doctors and nurses trying to save our daughter's life."

She told the jury: "Unfortunately, as our daughter had been left untreated for 55 hours, it was too late to save our darling girl."

Earlier, Carr became emotional as she gave a pen portrait of Esta to the jury.

She said the moment of her birth was "something we have dreamed of".

Carr said her daughter was "bright, beautiful and perfect from the first moment" and "when she arrived, she completed us".

Speaking next to a photograph of Esta, she said: "Her smile lit up every room - especially in the mornings when she woke as if full of joy just to see us again.

"She brought happiness everywhere she went."

Carr said: "In just five months, Esta touched the lives of everyone who met her."

She said she did not want her daughter to be defined by the shortness of her life, saying she was "a little girl who deserved the world".

The inquest is expected to last 10 days.

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