THE HEARTBROKEN family of late Shannon teenager Aoife Johnston renewed their call for a full statutory inquiry on the second anniversary of her death at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
The Shannon schoolgirl died of meningitis after being left for 13 hours in the UHL emergency department (ED) before being given antibiotics, despite a GP referral signalling possible sepsis.
And the family solicitor, Damien Tansey, has described the report into the circumstances surrounding the Shannon schoolgirl’s tragic death, prepared by former chief justice Frank Clarke, as “a complete waste of time”.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme this Thursday (December 19), two years on to the day from the 16-year-old’s death at UHL on December 19, 2022, Mr Tansey said that the “very least the Johnston family are entitled to is to be provided with a process which will produce results”.
Mr Tansey said that the state State “having failed the Johnston family throught the HSE … is the only agency with the authority to provide answers and, to date, no answers have been forthcoming”.
Addressing the recent Clarke report, Mr Tansey described said the effort was “a complete waste of time”.
He said this was no reflection on the former cheif justice, who had outlined at the start that he had no remit to make findings of fact or adverse conclusions, or even resolve conflicts of accounts of what happened on the night that Aoife was admitted to the UHL ED.
Mr Tansey also refuted concerns that such a statutory inquiry could take years to complete, suggesting that it “would not be a public inquiry”.
“The chairman will be entitled to call witnesses, to take evidence, and the people in focus will have the opportunity to challenge the evidence. But at the end, findings will be made.”
The solicitor added that there “is no doubt the Johnston family will meet with the new Minister for Health to indicate what their requirements are in relation to that inquiry”.
