‘Robbed of the mostprecious wee girl’

Marie Ferguson lost her nine-year-old only daughter in June 2001. Raychel died in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children after being given the wrong level of sodium required to treat dehydration following a routine appendix operation in Altnagelvin.

She died from brain swelling brought on by hyponatraemia - a disturbance caused by a shortage of sodium in the body.

Last week Marie and Ray Ferguson both provided a moving testimony to the Inquiry into Hyponatraemia Related Deaths in Northern Ireland (IHRDNI).

The Inquiry is also investigating the deaths of Adam Strain, who died at the age of 4 years on November 28, 1995; Claire Roberts, who died at the age of 9 years on October 23, 1996; and Conor Mitchell, who died at the age of 15 in 2003.

A key question for the Inquiry is why Raychel was given a weaker concentration of sodium solution (No. 18) after initially being prescribed a stronger concentration (Hartmann’s).

Mrs Ferguson referred to this question in her joint testimony with her husband Ray. She said: “Raychel may have had some peculiar reaction to Solution No. 18 as Solution No. 18 was used safely before.

“But how do we know that? Where is the evidence for that from the Trust? I don’t trust the Trust or believe a word they say.”

Mrs Ferguson said she believed children other than those whose deaths are currently being investigated by the IHRDNI may have died as a result of complications arising from hyponatraemia.

“I don’t want to cause a major problem for the inquiry, but I am concerned more children and even adults may have died from hyponatraemia, but the Trust has covered the deaths up and families have been lied to. I’m even more convinced of this now with all the evidence that I’ve heard recently,” Mrs Ferguson told the inquiry at Banbridge.

She continued: “You would think we are talking about the Stone Age. My daughter died in the 21st century, 12 years ago. It seems like yesterday to us. But this constant talk of standards at the time is absolutely no excuse for Altnagelvin killing our daughter.”

During her testimony Mrs Ferguson recalls rushing back to the hospital in the early hours of June 9, 2001, after Raychel’s condition deteriorated following the removal of her appendix.

“Ray said: ‘Don’t be driving too fast or anything.’ I remember going over the new bridge, and you could see the hospital and I said, ‘I won’t be long, Raychel.’ I remember saying, ‘I won’t be long, Raychel, I’ll be there in a wee minute,’” said Mrs Ferguson.

When she arrived at the hospital she told the inquiry she was informed that Raychel’s sodium was low and that she was ‘seriously ill.’

There followed a sequence of events, which is disputed between some of the medical staff who were involved and the Ferguson family.

For example, the Fergusons told the inquiry they were convinced Raychel was to be given a blue light escort to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Belfast for a surgical operation.

However, the accounts of some of the medical witnesses claim Raychel was inoperable due to swelling of the brain and she was being taken to the Royal because the appropriate level of care could only be provided there.

Mr and Mrs Ferguson both also told the inquiry a mystery figure with “dark hair and dark beard came and sat beside us and started to explain that she was going to the Royal for an operation.”

Mrs Ferguson also recalls her surprise at seeing a priest administering the last rites to Raychel, whilst she was at Altnagelvin.

“I couldn’t understand when we did go in that there was a priest there because, to me, if you’re given the last rites, then you’re going to die or you’re dying. But I said, ‘Raychel’s not dying,’ because we weren’t told she was going to die,” she said.

Both parents told the inquiry in their joint testimony: “With whatever hope we had, can anyone imagine what it was like for us walking in, seeing a priest standing over Raychel, giving her the last rites?

“Now when we look back on that and in view of all the evidence given, did the priest know or was he told something that we weren’t? We can’t accept that the priest just does that in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as a matter of course.”

Eventually, Raychel was taken by ambulance to the Royal at approximately 11am on June 9. It was here that Mrs Ferguson spoke to a doctor and realised that her only daughter was dying.

“But it was at that point then, the way he had put it, that I knew that Raychel was dying or that there was no going back at that point, that whatever the words he’d said, I remember kicking a wall and saying that, no, she couldn’t be, she was just getting an operation.

“But he made it pretty clear then that there’s no going back, that Raychel wasn’t getting any better,” she told the inquiry.

It was the next morning that Raychel’s machine was turned off as her brainstem function had ceased.

Mrs Ferguson recalled this dreadful moment to the inquiry.

She said: “I know that no one here could possibly imagine how you could ever be ready to face something as horrific as this.

“I know in my heart I had to do it, but I did not know how I could ever say I was ready to give up my daughter Raychel, Wee Boots.

“Then how I was going to explain to my three boys what we were about to do and that their sister would not be coming home?

“I sat in a chair with Ray beside me, the nurse lifted Raychel out onto my knee, my three sons were sitting around crying. I begged Raychel to please wake up.

“This was her last chance, but this did not happen. The nurse nodded and I nodded back. Then before me I watched Raychel’s wee pink rosy cheeks slowly turn to white and her wee nails turn blue and it was all over.

“All I can recall then is loud sobbing and crying, the family trying to comfort us and my three children. This is an image that I will take to the grave with me, never mind the days that followed and has turned into years.

“I made Raychel a promise the day her coffin was closed and she left home for the last time that I would not stop until I got to the truth of what happened, of what robbed me of the most precious wee girl of my life.”