Hospital ‘finally says sorry’ over care in brain death tragedy

The hospital which treated a young woman who died unexpectedly four years ago has said her care fell below their usual “high standards” – but the admission is “a complete cop out”, her mother said.

Gaia Young, 25, was admitted to University College London Hospital (UCLH) in July 2021 when she was taken ill following a bike ride, and died 17 hours later.

Doctors know that Gaia died from a cerebral oedema – a brain swelling – but even after an inquest the underlying cause of her sudden illness remained unexplained.

Her mother, Lady Dorit Young, has continued to fight and campaign for the hospital to take accountability for what she says are failings in its care.

She described the hospital’s latest statement, a partial apology via a short comment in a news article, as “pathetic”, adding: “It came completely out of the blue. I didn’t even notice it at first, then I was extremely furious. Why, four years after Gaia died, why now? Why did they let us do all this work and fight and push? I think it’s cruel.

“They could have done it at court, in the inquest. They could have said it to me in person, but the fact that they put it into a rather unknown publication, it’s very sneaky, it’s pretty shameful. It’s a complete cop out.”

The UCLH comment was made in response to an article called “Failing the dead: How medical ignorance is killing Britain’s coroner service”, by journalist Angela Walker in online political magazine The Lead.

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Source: Islington Tribune, 14 July 2024

Further reading on the hub:

• Treated with callous disrespect: A bereaved mother’s tale of institutional apathy from the Coroner Service 
• The hospital told me to GO HOME, but my daughter was critically sick. A bereaved mother’s 11 patient safety lessons