Billie Wicks, a 16-year-old girl, tragically died following her first asthma attack after being inadequately monitored and inappropriately discharged from the Royal Free Hospital in north London. Coroner Mary Hassell highlighted systemic issues around patient monitoring, referencing a similar prior case where lack of adequate observations contributed to a patient’s death. The coroner emphasized that proper hourly observations would have likely led to timely intervention and treatment, which could have saved Billie's life. In response, the Royal Free London Trust acknowledged the failures and committed to increasing staffing levels.
"Billie was inappropriately discharged at approximately 3.30am without adequate repeat observations or senior clinical review, and so her asthma was not diagnosed or treated."
"If she had had these observations, the emergency registrar who discharged her would have recognised that she was not as well as he thought, and would have sought senior medical review."
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