A seven-year-old Letterkenny girl died from cardiac failure following infection from a parasite which probably came from a cat's faeces, the Coroner's Court heard yesterday.
Rona Young , of Leck Cottages, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, died on February 5th, 2003, having been admitted to Letterkenny General Hospital the previous day.
Only hours prior to her admission she had attended her GP's surgery, where her father was told by consultant paediatrician Dr Sami Elkashif to take the child to hospital because "your daughter might die".
The inquest resumed yesterday having been adjourned in December to allow Gilbert Young, Rona's father, the opportunity to have legal representation. Mr Young did not have legal representation but he did question some medical witnesses about the care his daughter received while in hospital.
Consultant paediatrician Dr Séamus Maguire said he was called to the hospital on February 4th, 2003, at 11.45pm. He found Rona to be very pale and suffering from low blood pressure.
"She was managed, resuscitated and given IV fluids on her arrival, which resulted in a temporary improvement in her condition. She had the appearance of a very sick child.
"She had severe head lice and dirt under her nails, with a rash in both groin areas. My overall impression was that this was an unusual clinical presentation of shock and collapse in a seven-year-old child."
Consultant in emergency medicine Dr Gerard Lane told how he was called to a cardiac arrest bleep from Rona's room at 4.21pm on the day of her death. He could find no pulse and said the child appeared dead.
Despite the best efforts of Dr Lane and up to 10 other medics in the room, with more experts waiting outside, Rona was pronounced dead at 5.01pm.
"I asked the nurses to leave everything intact because we did not have a cause of death so it became a coroner's case. I spoke to her father and he did not want a post mortem. However, when I discussed the matter with her mother she wanted to know what happened," Dr Lane said.
Mr Young questioned Dr Lane as to whether his daughter should have been in intensive care.
Dr Lane said "'intensive care was there with her".
State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy gave evidence on the postmortem she conducted in Dublin the day after Rona's death.
She said the parasite which most likely caused the girl's death, toxo plasmosis, could have been picked up from cat faeces.
She said it took almost five weeks to identify the parasite because the tissue samples had to be sent to a laboratory in the UK.
"Death was due to natural causes. Cardiac failure due to myocarditis. The underlying cause was toxo plasmosis.
"Although it can be passed on to humans, it's not an infection you think of people getting in the normal course of events.
"In a rural community there is contact with animals on a regular basis. How she got it I am not sure, but she had likely been exposed to cats or some animal along that line. She was probably playing with something and did not wash her hands. Poor hygiene," Dr Cassidy added.
She added that Rona had been a normal, healthy child, well cared for and had been eating well. She had probably developed the acute infection in the week before her death, probably by ingesting the parasite.
Coroner Seán Cannon instructed the seven-person jury to deliver a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence provided by Dr Cassidy.
It returned a verdict of death caused by cardiac failure caused by toxo plasmosis.
Offering his sympathy to the family of the deceased, Mr Cannon said he hoped the inquest would help to bring closure.