THE PARENTS of a 15-year-old girl who died after brain surgery at a Dublin hospital said yesterday the laughter had gone from their lives following the death of their “bubbly” daughter.
Meghan Fleming of Rathuard, Ballysheehy, Limerick, was days short of her 16th birthday when she died at Beaumont Hospital on August 28th, 2010 – the day after surgery during which a “catastrophic” bleed occurred.
The second-level student at Coláiste Chiaráin, Croom, Co Limerick, had sat her Junior Cert just two months earlier.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell recorded a verdict of death by medical misadventure after hearing evidence at an inquest into the teenager’s death at the Dublin Coroner’s Court yesterday. “This is a tragic result of a procedure,” he said.
The inquest heard Meghan had balance and co-ordination difficulties for years, including difficulties in using a knife and fork and in tying her shoelaces. Her father Brendan told the inquest they had been trying to get the issue diagnosed. The teenager had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan at the Mid-Western Hospital, Limerick, in June 2010, which revealed a marked hydrocephalus (build-up of fluid inside the skull), and she was transferred to Beaumont Hospital on July 13th for neurosurgery.
Another MRI at Beaumont showed hydrocephalus, and the possibility of an underlying cyst obstructing the flow of cerebrospinal fluid was considered.
“When we looked at the MRI, we thought, she needs treatment. We made the decision this child needs definitive treatment,” said consultant neurosurgeon Dr Muhammad Taufiq-A-Satter.
Meghan underwent surgery at the Dublin hospital on July 21st which confirmed a large cyst in her brain, which was causing chronic hydrocephalus. The aim of the procedure was to bring the pressure in the cyst under control, but the surgery was abandoned after minor bleeding occurred and a drain was left in place.
Following the first surgery, the girl was placed on antibiotics to treat meningitis.
The family did not know anything about the meningitis until the inquest, their counsel Thomas Wallace-O’Donnell said, adding Mr Fleming was anxious to state if they had known they might not have consented to the second surgery.
By August 27th, Meghan was considered fit and stable enough to undergo a second procedure to treat the hydrocephalus, which had become acute.
Surgeon John Caird initially planned to remove the cyst, but found it was too big. He was dissecting the floor of the cyst when an “instantaneous and catastrophic” bleed occurred. The teenager’s condition deteriorated dramatically and she was taken to the intensive care unit. She was pronounced dead the following day.
The coroner commended the family’s courage in consenting to organ harvesting, from which four patients benefited.
Mr Caird said catastrophic bleeding is recognised, but rare. “She was extremely unlucky,” he said. “She had a surgical complication which resulted in her death.
Without surgery, he said, it was entirely possible Meghan would be alive today and in school, but he added there was an incidence of sudden death with hydrocephalus and that her symptoms could have become worse. He said the surgery was necessary, and agreed with solicitor for Beaumont Hospital Aideen Goggin the procedure was “absolutely correct”.
The coroner recorded a cause of death of brain injury due to massive haemorrhage. He said he would write to the hospital with regard to the meningitis issue, but stressed the meningitis did not contribute to the adverse outcome.
Her parents Patricia and Brendan described their daughter afterwards as a “very happy-go-lucky, laid-back, bubbly” girl who loved music, books and dancing. Despite her balance difficulties she had put her name down for a school trip to climb Kilimanjaro.