A teenager who died after an agency worker with false identity papers left her unsupervised at a children’s mental health hospital should have been kept within eyesight at all times, an inquest has heard.
Ruth Szymankiewicz was being treated for an eating disorder at Huntercombe Hospital in Berkshire and had been placed under strict one-to-one observation when on February 12 2022 she was able to shut herself in her bedroom alone for 15 minutes, a jury inquest held at Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court heard on Tuesday.
The 14-year-old girl self-harmed and died two days later at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
It later emerged the member of staff responsible for watching Ruth at the hospital’s psychiatric intensive care unit – a man then known as Ebo Acheampong – had been using false identity documents and was hired under a false name.
The teenager was last captured on CCTV walking out of the ward’s day room “completely on her own” before going straight to her bedroom and closing the door behind her, coroner Ian Wade KC told the hearing.
Jurors were shown the footage in which 15 minutes pass before a nurse opens the door, then covers her mouth in what appears to be an expression of shock.
Ellesha Brannigan, who worked as a clinical team leader on the ward, told the court on Tuesday she ran to Ruth’s bedroom after the alarm was raised and found the teenage girl lying unconscious.
“She was just still,” Ms Brannigan said, adding the teenage girl was not breathing and staff initiated chest compressions in an attempt to revive her.
About a week prior, Ruth’s care plan had been escalated to “level three observation” after a similar self-harming incident, Ms Brannigan told the court.
“Level three observation is within eyesight at all times,” she told the hearing.
Staff members would take turns watching Ruth for 60 minutes at a time, the inquest heard.
Ms Brannigan further told the inquest “level two observation” would have still required a member of staff check on the patient “every five or 10 minutes”.
Asked by the coroner if there were circumstances in which a member of staff responsible for a level three observation could take their eyes off the patient, she replied: “No.
“If they (the patient) are prescribed level three observation, you must comply with what is prescribed.”
The coroner previously said Mr Acheampong will not be giving evidence at the inquest as he fled the UK for Ghana shortly after Ruth’s death.
The inquest continues.
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