The family of a teenage girl who died from a rare form of leukaemia said they fear a similar outcome could happen again.
Katie Wilkins, 14, died on July 31, 2020 from an intracranial haemorrhage caused by acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APML). An inquest ruled on Thursday that the teenager’s death was contributed to by medical neglect and could have been prevented.
Katie first fell ill in June 2020 when she felt unbearable pains while visiting her sister in London. After a short illness and five hospital visits, she died in Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
READ MORE: Correct treatment for tragic teenager may have given her a chance of survival
Katie’s parents, mum Jeanette Whitfield and dad Jonathan Wilkins, spoke to the ECHO shortly after the inquest’s verdict. Assistant Coroner Katy Ainge concluded the cause of their daughter’s death was an intracranial haemorrhage caused and contributed to by neglect at Warrington General and Alder Hey hospitals.
Ms Whitfield said: “Katie was a fun and sassy teenager who loved make-up and spent hours on YouTube watching videos. She gave the best hugs in the entire world.
“She was a bright, loving and happy child. She was a massive light and had a huge heart. Her laugh was so recognisable and you could hear her a mile away.”
She said Katie loved animals. She would often visit the stables near their house and would cause chaos with her dog Charlie at home. Her mum said she was always the person her friends would go to if they had problems and was the first to stand up for other people.
Her dad added: “She was a typical teenager with a lust for life. She loved nothing better than taking the mick out of us.
“She was very active and always liked to know what was going on. She loved going down to the village, where everyone knew her and would laugh and joke with her whenever her bus got in early.”
The family said the inquest had been very difficult to hear but they were incredibly grateful to the coroner and witnesses for helping them to find out the truth about what happened to their daughter.
Mr Wilkins said they were pleased to have a verdict of neglect but that the family still have “grave concerns”. He said that he wasn’t sure that the correct experts would be allocated to another child in Katie’s position and any diagnosis seemed like “pot luck”.
Ms Whitfield said she hoped other parents and their children would be listened to at the hospitals and not dismissed. She took Katie to hospital five times when her daughter was in a lot of pain and believes she could still be alive had they gone elsewhere.
She said she understood there was a national lack of resources that had affected Alder Hey but it was not “too much to ask” that the correct consultants be put in charge of her care.
Katie’s parents said in a statement: “It’s hard to believe that we have needlessly lost our funny, caring, sassy, loveable girl with a contagious smile. The loss of Katie has left a huge hole in our family and will forever be in our hearts. We will never forget her.
“On the day Katie was taken to Alder Hey and diagnosed with leukaemia, she asked her mum if she was going to die, and Jeanette told her “No, you are in the best possible hands at Alder Hey”. We knew that Katie was at risk of a haemorrhage, but we put our trust in the specialist, world-class care of the Alder Hey medical staff.
“But the morning she was rushed to theatre due to a bleed on her brain was like something out of a horror film. It’s still so hard to believe that our daughter was let down so catastrophically by the medical staff who we placed our complete trust in.
“Even after Katie had been let down so badly by Warrington General Hospital, we believed that the staff at Alder Hey were experts who would treat our daughter with the utmost care. We thought that when we finally had a diagnosis, Katie would be okay as APML is so treatable and the survival rate is very high.
“However, we were wrong, and Katie was again let down by those who were responsible for her treatment. This inquest has exposed the full extent of the basic failings in Katie’s care by both Warrington and Alder Hey hospitals, and we are pleased that the care provided by both Trusts has been recognised as neglect.
“The truth as to how she died and making sure that this never happens to another child has been a devastating journey for our family over the last two years but it’s what Katie deserves. We are relieved that the ongoing concerns we have about the level of care that current and future children with APML will receive due to a lack of haematologists is being raised at a national level and will have to be addressed by the Secretary of State for Health.
“While nothing can bring Katie back, we are pleased that her legacy will be to protect other children with leukaemia. We are grateful for the dedication of our legal team, and the professionalism of the expert witness and the coroner Ms Ainge.
“We sincerely hope that Warrington and Alder Hey hospitals act on the changes they have promised to make to improve the care for children with leukaemia.”
