A hospital boss has apologised "unreservedly" after the death of a 12-year-old girl which led a coroner to raise concerns about the "discrimination of disabled children".
Rose Harfleet died at Royal Surrey County Hospital, in Guildford, on 30 January 2024, having attended its emergency department the day before with abdominal pain and vomiting.
Assistant coroner for Surrey, Karen Henderson, said in a recent report that there was a failure of the medical and nursing staff to appreciate Rose was clinically deteriorating.
The coroner said Rose, who from birth was diagnosed with mosaic trisomy 17 with global developmental delay, was "wholly reliant on her mother to advocate on her behalf".
But she said at the hospital no history was taken from Rose's mother and that the severity of her signs and symptoms were underestimated.
She said poor clinical decisions contributed to Rose's death.
"This gives rise to a concern that by not listening to parents or guardians as a matter of course leads to discrimination of disabled children," she added.
Source: BBC News, 4 June 2025
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