'Missed opportunities' to save baby, inquest told

A five-month-old girl who died from meningitis may have lived had antibiotics been given earlier and had doctors looked beyond their diagnosis of Covid, an inquest has been told.

Esta High died at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) on 2 November 2023 from a bacterial infection two days after her parents took her to the hospital's emergency department due to her high temperature and vomiting.

The jury inquest into her death, at Wakefield Coroner's Court, heard how doctors did not give the baby antibiotics until it was too late to save her.

Paediatric consultant Simon Nadel agreed there were "missed opportunities" at LGI that "more than minimally, negligibly or trivially" contributed to Esta's death.

The inquest jury heard how Esta tested positive for Covid and was kept in the hospital because of concerns from her parents, despite staff wanting to send her home.

Esta was eventually given antibiotics on the evening of 2 November and she was admitted to intensive care, but by this point they could not save her life.

Prof Nadel said the presence of Covid made decision-making more complicated for the doctors involved.

But he added: "I have said all along that the earlier antibiotics were started, the more likely the outcome would have been different."

Prof Nadel said he believed the cause of Esta's death was pneumococcal meningitis, but agreed with the coroner that this was for the jury to formally determine.

Last week, Esta's mum, Lynsey Carr, told the jury how her daughter was a "happy, healthy, smiling girl" before she became ill on 31 October.

She explained how Esta's condition deteriorated in hospital, but concerns expressed by her and her partner were repeatedly ignored by staff until it was too late.

Carr said the family, from Leeds, were put in a side room at the hospital's children's assessment and treatment unit where she believed staff were more concerned with isolating Esta because of the Covid risk than with listening to her parents.

The family's concerns over her symptoms, some of which they captured on a video which was shown to the jury, were "dismissed on multiple occasions", Carr explained.

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

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

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