Doctors 'panicked' as Dalry teenager deteriorated after surgery

Amy Allan died at Great Ormond Street Hospital last year

The mother of a teenager who died after an operation on her spine has described how doctors "panicked" when her condition deteriorated.

Amy Allan, 14, died last September from complications at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Her mother Leigh told an inquest hearing the family would not have agreed to the procedure if the risks had been properly explained.

The family, from Dalry, Ayrshire, blame the hospital for the teenager's death.

Mrs Allan claimed a lack of planning and communication by the hospital were the key reasons the teenager died.

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Amy was born with a genetic condition called Noonan Syndrome, which caused a number of health problems throughout her life.

Her spine started to curve due to scoliosis as she grew and it was clear she needed surgery to reduce her pain and prevent it getting worse.

Amy also had a lifelong heart problem - pulmonary hypertension- which made the surgery more complicated.

It was decided that her operation should take place at Great Ormond Street where there was a specialised life support system known as ECMO.

No hospital in Scotland could both conduct the operation and provide the ECMO support.

'It was awful'

Mrs Allan told the inquest at St Pancras Coroner's Court that the family were told Amy's surgery had been a complete success.

"Not a bleep out of place" were the exact words of an anaesthetist, she said. But things went rapidly downhill that evening, when Amy was in the intensive care unit.

In written evidence, consultant Dr Roberta Bini, said she had carried out a cardiac assessment of Amy around 19:00.

But Mrs Allan, who with her husband was at her daughter's bedside throughout, said there had been no examination beyond the doctor coming to the bed and giving her a smile and a thumbs up.

Dr Bini's evidence, she said, was "not true".

At about 23:20 that night, Amy's breathing tube was removed (extubated) despite several medical readings suggesting she wasn't stable enough.

When her blood pressure subsequently plummeted and her heart rate start racing, there was no ECMO support team available as the cardiac ward had not been informed that Amy was even in the hospital.

Mrs Allan said Amy was awake and aware that the medics around her "seemed to panic" and that "they weren't confident".

She added: "At one point, men were pushing fluid into her. It was awful.

"We wouldn't have allowed extubation to take place if we'd known ECMO was not on standby. We wouldn't have consented to surgery if we'd known ECMO was not on standby."

'No evidence' of damage

Asked why she felt her daughter had died, Mrs Allan said "a lack of planning, a lack of communication and the lack of ECMO on standby."

On Monday, an independent expert, Dr Stephen Playfor had told the inquest that the decision to extubate the 14 year old was "clinically inappropriate" and had "materially contributed to her death."

But in evidence on Wednesday, pathologist Dr Liina Palm said that the post-mortem examination she carried out had found "no evidence of irreversible damage to the heart or brain" from the events of September 4-5.

Amy died later that month from sepsis on 28 September.

The inquest will conclude on Thursday.