Girl, 14, died after being left alone at Huntercombe mental health hospital by carer with fake ID, inquest told

An agency frame Who did not manage to supervise a suicidal teenager in a mental health hospital affected by the scandal worked under a false identity document and fled the country shortly after his death, a investigation was told.

Ruth SzymankiewIWIET, 14, died after she was left alone at the Huntercombe hospital, near Virginity In BerkshireDespite the need for constant individual observation, the survey jurors were informed.

The hearing was informed that the support worker who had been responsible for the follow -up of Ruth had only crossed the day or a day and a half of online training before his first quarter of work at the children’s psychiatric hospital on February 12, 2022.

He left his quarter of work at 8 p.m. at the end, but should have waited back to another worker before doing so, to make sure that Ruth could be monitored at any time. But the coroner told the jury that he “had just left”, which means that Ruth was left alone for 15 minutes.

At that time, Ruth, who had a food disorder, went to her room where she committed an act of self -manage. She was found and resuscitated and transferred to the local acute hospital, John Radcliffe in Oxford, where she was admitted to intensive care. Ruth died two days later, on February 14, 2022, having undergone a brain injury.

Coroner Assistant for Buckinghashire, Ian Wade, Said later that the worker, who had joined the hospital the day Ruth had been left unattended, had used false identity documents and was hired through an agency under a false name, EBO ROUCMPONG.

“The evidence has shown that he had been employed through an agency, which checked his identity documents, and they even trained it by putting it through a day or a half class,” Wade told Jurors.

“It seems that these special processes are the standard and were sufficient to allow a hospital to employ this person. But on February 12, he did not keep Ruth under a constant watch.

“Some time around 8 p.m., this man put an end to his quarter of work without knowing where she was and without ensuring that he has given her to another staff member to continue the healthcare regime one by one.

“He’s just gone.”

Mr. Wade continued: “It turned out that he was not EBO ROUCEMONG, it was a false name. He had been helped to acquire a false identity document and he never returned to work in Huntercombe.”

After Ruth’s death, police found the worker’s phone, which revealed that he had gone “at Heathrow airport and went on a plane for Ghana”.

The Coroner said the police thought they were knowing “who he was really” but that he was “never seen” after leaving the country.

“It seems that he learned what happened that evening,” said Wade. “He dropped Ruth. He dropped everyone.”

The investigation, which started on Monday, heard that Ruth should have been subject to observations continues to one and looked at at any time following a suicide attempt on February 7.

When Mrs. SzymankiewIWICZ was left unattended, she was able to assemble, said the coroner. A post -mortem exam carried out by the Ministry of the Interior then determined that the preliminary cause of death was “hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy” – a type of brain damage due to the lack of oxygen.

After Ruth’s death, the Quality of Care Committee launched a criminal investigation alongside the police. The police have taken no other measure. The CQC has not declared if they will not yet take prosecution.

The court also heard that the Huntercombe Private Hospital had been inspected twice by Care Quality Commission (CQC) before the incident.

“The CQC had not reported favorably from Huntercombe,” the coroner told the investigation.

Maidenhead’s Huntercombe Hospital, also called Taplow Manor, closed its doors last year after joint surveys by The independent and Sky News. He was part of a group, formerly led by the Huntcombe group and now supported by Active Care Group.

Ruth’s parents described the teenager as having “lived entirely life”.

The investigation at the Buckinghashire Coroner Court in Beaconsfield continues.