A five-year-old Dublin girl who contracted a rare parasitical disease on holiday in southern Europe died months later, not directly from that disease, but as a result of a procedure at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, the Dublin city coroner has found.
Dr Brian Farrell yesterday returned a verdict of "medical misadventure" at the close of the inquest into the death of April McCarthy at the hospital on October 2nd, 2003.
He said the child died as a result of blood-loss following a needle biopsy of her liver carried out at the hospital in an ongoing effort to diagnose her condition.
After a postmortem, the disease from which April was suffering was established as Leishmaniasis disease, which occurs in Africa and southern Europe. It is carried by dogs and passed on to humans by sandflies.
Dr Farrell said he was satisfied April contracted the disease while in Albania earlier in 2003.
April, of St James's Terrace, Dolphin's Barn, Dublin, died at the hospital some hours after the liver biopsy was performed there on October 2nd, 2003.
She had been admitted to the hospital in August 2003 with high fever, lack of energy and a cough, but a series of tests failed to diagnose Leishmaniasis disease.
As part of the continuing effort to diagnose the child's condition, it was decided on October 2nd, 2003 to carry out a biopsy of her liver and her mother signed a consent form.
In a statement to the inquest, April's mother, Bridget McCarthy (27), said that prior to signing the consent form, she had asked was there a chance April would die and was told there was not. Ms McCarthy said her daughter was playing football on the morning of October 2nd and was dead later that day.
The inquest was told two puncture wounds were observed in the child's liver following the biopsy and that she had begun to experience significant blood-loss.
It was decided to operate on her later that day in an effort to stop the bleeding but, during that operation, the child experienced cardiac arrest and could not be resuscitated.
In reports to the inquest on behalf of the hospital, it was said it was not told of April's visit to Albania and perhaps other parts of southern Europe.
