Coroner criticizes doctors over girl who starved
Date: 2/16/2009
LONDON (AP) — An 8-year-old girl starved herself to death because of an extreme dental phobia that doctors failed to diagnose properly, a British coroner said Monday.
Coroner Emma Carlyon said staff did not realize the severity of the condition afflicting Sophie Waller, who died in December 2005. Carlyon said this prevented the girl "from receiving the medical support that could have prevented her death."
Witnesses at the inquest testified that Sophie had an extreme phobia of dentists and refused to eat, sleep or drink after her baby teeth became loose. Medical staff ultimately decided to pull out all her baby teeth under general anesthetic in November 2005.
She was sent home a few days later but would not eat and died three weeks after the operation.
Her parents said they contacted doctors and a psychologist but no one saw Sophie in person before she died.
The Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, 250 miles (400 kilometers) southwest of London, acknowledged there had been failures in Sophie's care, and said it had made changes.
A coroner's inquest is required in Britain to establish the facts when someone dies unexpectedly, violently or of unknown causes, but has no power to punish anyone.
Carlyon gave a narrative verdict, in which a coroner simply outlines the circumstances that led to the death or deaths.
She said the immediate cause of Sophie's death was kidney failure due to dehydration and starvation.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
LONDON (AP) — An 8-year-old girl starved herself to death because of an extreme dental phobia that doctors failed to diagnose properly, a British coroner said Monday.
Coroner Emma Carlyon said staff did not realize the severity of the condition afflicting Sophie Waller, who died in December 2005. Carlyon said this prevented the girl "from receiving the medical support that could have prevented her death."
Witnesses at the inquest testified that Sophie had an extreme phobia of dentists and refused to eat, sleep or drink after her baby teeth became loose. Medical staff ultimately decided to pull out all her baby teeth under general anesthetic in November 2005.
She was sent home a few days later but would not eat and died three weeks after the operation.
Her parents said they contacted doctors and a psychologist but no one saw Sophie in person before she died.
The Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, 250 miles (400 kilometers) southwest of London, acknowledged there had been failures in Sophie's care, and said it had made changes.
A coroner's inquest is required in Britain to establish the facts when someone dies unexpectedly, violently or of unknown causes, but has no power to punish anyone.
Carlyon gave a narrative verdict, in which a coroner simply outlines the circumstances that led to the death or deaths.
She said the immediate cause of Sophie's death was kidney failure due to dehydration and starvation.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Labels: child deaths, child dental care, child health, child starvation, coroner inquest, coroner's inquest, dental deaths, dental phobia, medical malpractice
posted by ATTORNEY GORDON JOHNSON at
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