Lilly-May Page death 'could have been prevented'

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Lilly-May Page and mumImage source, Family handout
Image caption,

Lilly-May Page died after collapsing from an undiagnosed heart condition near Willow Bank School in Woodley in 2014

A five-year-old girl who collapsed outside her school in 2014 could have been saved if she had been shocked with a defibrillator, an inquest has heard.

Lilly-May Page died after collapsing from an undiagnosed heart condition near Willow Bank School in Woodley, Berkshire, in 2014.

A paramedic decided not to use a defibrillator on the girl.

Cardiologist Dr Edmund Ladusans said she would have survived if she had been shocked.

'Nothing to lose'

Paramedic Shannon Jacobs, who was trained at Oxford Brookes University, said she was taught that shocking a patient with fine ventricular fibrillation, a condition where the heart quivers, "could do more harm than good".

Ms Jacobs has previously said her training was "inadequate".

Dr Ladusans said evidence of electrical activity picked up by a heart monitor should have resulted in a shock as there "was nothing to lose".

He added that text books differentiating between coarse and fine ventricular fibrillation caused confusion and needed to be clarified.

When asked by coroner Pete Bedford if Lilly-May would have survived if she had been shocked, Dr Ladusans replied "yes".

The hearing has been adjourned.

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