A DISTRAUGHT mum of a 13-year-old girl who took her own life after telling teachers she was suicidal has slammed medics for sending her home.
Ella Murray died on November 15, 2023, at King’s College Hospital in London after attempting to take her own life the day before.
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Ella told mental health nurses she wanted to end her own life Credit: Cover Images
The 13-year-old was airlifted to hospital but tragically died the next day Credit: Cover Images
A coroner heard Ella had been admitted to A&E two days before after telling teachers she “wanted to kill herslef.”
The high school student told a paediatric nurse that she would end her life if she were sent home from the hospital.
Despite this Ella was referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and deemed “medium risk” after being seen by a mental health nurse.
She was then sent home with an agreed treatment plan and seen by another mental health nurse the following day.
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The young rugby player told the nurse she was going to “hurt herself or others” if she stayed at home and said she was feeling suicidal and wanted to go to the hospital.
A risk assessment was not carried out and it was deemed that Ella would not meet the criteria to be admitted to hospital.
When the nurse left her home in Sheerness, Kent, 13-year-old Ella attempted to end her life.
She was airlifted to hospital in London where she would tragically die the following day.
Area coroner Catherine Wood later found it wasn’t “credible” that a teen could tell a nurse she was going to harm herself without a risk assessment then being carried out.
She said: “I simply cannot accept it is reasonable to leave her at home even with a plan to see her the following day.
How to get help
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
“There was a clear failure here to keep Ella safe. This was a child crying out for help, and I find she should have been risk-assessed.
“Had she been, she would have been high risk.”
The coroner ruled that Ella should have been admitted into a mental health ward or work done with partner agencies to ensure she was safe.
Speaking to KentOnline two years after the inquest’s conclusion Ella’s mum said: “Losing a child is something I will never get over. There are so many questions I will never have the answer to, so many ‘what ifs’, and I cannot ask Ella.
Ella was discharged from hospital with a home treatment plan Credit: Cover Images
A coroner ruled that Ella should have been admitted into a mental health ward Credit: Cover Images
“I look back and think she could still be here. If she felt like someone was helping her, maybe she would not have given up hope.
“One of the hardest things I hear is ‘she would have done it anyway’. We do not know that.”
One of Ella’s friends has now launched a petition calling for mandatory suicide risk assessments to be carried out when a child in hospital expresses a wish to harm themselves.
Ella’s grieving friends and family say people who have gone to hospital should not be discharged without having an assessment.
They are asking that anyone saying they want to harm themselves be taken more seriously.
A prevention of future deaths report was submitted to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the chief executive of NHS England and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB).
Area coroner Catherine Wood outlined her concerns in the report, saying that if Ella had been removed from her home she may “still be alive today.”
The organisations responded to say multiple meetings and reviews had taken place.
Adding that steps were being taken to strengthen information sharing between agencies and escalation plans for professionals.
Ella may ‘still be alive today’ had she been removed from her home, a coroner ruled Credit: Cover Images
