Inquest of girl who fatally self-harmed at hospital to consider unlawful killing

A jury at investigation of a teenager who is fatally self – mental health hospital Should ask if she was illegally killed, said a coroner.

Ruth Szymankiewicz, 14, died after she left alone at Huntercombe Hospital, near Virginity In Berkshire, also called Taplow Manor, on February 12, 2022, despite constant individual observation.

In the 15 minutes, she was left unattended, Ruth, who underwent a food disorder, made her way in her room, where she self -hears. She was found and resuscitated before being transferred to the hospital, but died two days later from a cerebral lesion.

In summary, the investigation on Wednesday, the deputy coroner of the Buckinghashire Coroner court, Ian Wade KC, told the jury that they could consider “illegal murders”, which, according to him, would be equivalent to “serious negligence” on the part of her care, if she had been proven.

The jury could also consider the conclusions of suicide and or that Ruth’s death was the result of negligence.

To reach an illegal conclusion of murder, the jury should consider that the worker owed him a duty of diligence, that negligence was an act of omission and was an important cause of his death.

He said that the violation of the diligence obligation should be “so reprehensible that it is equivalent to a crime”.

A verdict of illegal murder during an investigation can only be decided on “the balance of probabilities” rather than out of all reasonable doubts, as required by a criminal court.

During his investigation, it was revealed that the Ruth district was “seriously short-person” and missing “at least half” of their workers on the day of his self-cumulative. Two higher workers have repeated concerns that had previously been raised with hospital managers during the short endowment and pressure on employees.

In a note written by Ruth before her death, read aloud before the court, she said that there was a lack of therapy available at the hospital, which, according to her, had a “dangerous number of staff” and “should be closed”.

It has also been revealed that the support worker responsible for surveillance of Ruth had only crossed the day or a day of online training before his first quarter of work at the childrenPsychiatric hospital on February 12, 2022.

He had also worked under a false identity, EBO ROUCHPONG, and the police could not question him after his death when he had fled the country in Ghana.

The video surveillance of the day when she was independent showed that the worker left her alone in the television show. Meanwhile, Ruth was able to go to his room, close the door and injure himself.

The jury heard evidence that Ruth was able to self -managed a week before his death after the reduction in his levels of observation. After that, they increased again, so that it had to be constantly monitored.

A staff member said that the hospital staff knew that Ruth “would” seize “self -control, said the coroner in his summary.

During his stay at Huntercombe hospital, Ruth had to undergo a strength to eat every day in a tube. These “flows” caused its distress, and it should be retained by the staff, according to evidence.

Dr. Gillian Combes, clinical director of Thames Valley Provider collaborative, who is the NHS organization responsible for mental health care for patients hospitalized in the region, admitted that the NHS had not done enough for Ruth.

Dr. Combes admitted that the NHS was aware that unity was in an under-effective daily and “disputed”, but declared to the Court that there were no other options for an intensive psychiatric unit close to his family and that all the other units in the country struggled.

Asked about the admission of Ruth to the hospital, Dr. Combe said: “We had concerns, I was in the [provider collaborative] We had the CQC, we live and breathe while trying to overthrow this hospital, but the country’s hospitals were faced with the same challenges … All the units were really in difficulty … It was a really very difficult system. »»

The former director of the Huntercombe hospital, Marc Sycamore, said in his testimony that if the hospital had done enough with clinical care, “we would not be here”,

Maidenhead’s Huntercombe Hospital, also called Taplow Manor, closed in 2023 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.