Two-year-old died from sepsis after ‘very junior’ physician despatched her dwelling

A toddler with Down’s syndrome died from sepsis after a ‘very junior’ doctor sent her home with instructions to be given Calpol, her devastated parents said on Tuesday.

Selina Samarina was taken to hospital with tell-tale signs of the killer condition, including symptoms of fever, a rash and irritability, but was discharged the same day.

The two-year-old was brought back by ambulance the following day after her condition deteriorated, but went into cardiac arrest minutes later and died early the following morning.

Her parents accused staff at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, of a catalogue of errors today as a coroner issued a prevention of future deaths report, which highlighted a lack of staff that left Selina in the hands of an inexperienced doctor.

Signe and Stephen Samarina said problems included a nurse misrecording Selina’s heart rate, staff wrongly claiming the couple had discharged her themselves, and bungling security taking her father to the wrong part of the hospital, robbing him of the chance to be with her in her final moments.

The couple also said the bereavement team arrived with a memory box the day after Selina’s death – only to find it was empty because they brought the wrong one.

They have now instructed solicitors to take legal action against Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

Complaining no individuals would be held to account for the tragedy, account manager Mr Samarina, 44, said: ‘It’s not about the money. 

‘We want to highlight how poor the service was. That’s the only punishment the system allows us to give.’

Mrs Samarina, 42 – who is giving birth to another daughter tomorrow by elective caesarean section – added: ‘I don’t want anyone else to have to go through this because it’s been absolutely appalling.’

The Mail has run its End the Sepsis Scandal campaign since 2016 to raise awareness of symptoms among patients and hospital staff.

But the condition – which strikes when an infection such as blood poisoning sparks a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs and is known as the ‘silent killer’ – still caused tens of thousands of avoidable deaths each year.

Selina’s parents drove her the short distance from their home to A&E at Broomfield Hospital on April 7 last year, because they were so concerned about her they didn’t want to wait for an ambulance.

But they said they waited 40 minutes for a triage nurse and then endured another 90 minute delay – during which Mr Samarina was told off for walking around with Selina in his arms as he tried to soothe her – before the junior doctor arrived.

‘He just said she had a viral infection, just by looking in her mouth,’ said Mrs Samarina, 42, an administrator.

‘We asked for antibiotics and he said ‘Oh no, she’s too young. Just give her Calpol and it will go away.’

The couple were allowed to use a quiet room in the hope Selina’s heart rate would slow down, but claimed they were sent home by a nurse who said it was 140bpm, although they claim it was closer to 160bpm.

They also say hospital notes later showed the nurse recorded Selina’s heart rate as being 130bpm.

‘When we were told it was a viral infection we just wanted to take her home and make her comfortable,’ said Mr Samarina.

‘We’ll always feel terrible for not arguing with them, but if you do they’re quite patronising.’

Selina went to sleep after they got back to the home they shared with their other daughter Scarlett, now eight, and she didn’t wake up until 10am the following day.

‘I was giving her Nurofen and Calpol and water and stuff, but she wasn’t getting any better. That’s when I called 111 and an ambulance came,’ said Mrs Samarina.

‘When they saw us at the hospital, they told the paramedic we had discharged ourselves. 

‘The hospital lied, or maybe it was an error.’

She was met by the same triage nurse and her daughter was suddenly surrounded by ‘ten doctors’ before she went into cardiac arrest.

‘They managed to get her back, but the critical time [to treat her] had passed. It was too late by then,’ said Mrs Samarina.

Broomfield told Mrs Samarina – who was on her own as her husband was looking after their other daughter Scarlett at home – that Selina would be transferred to Great Ormond St Hospital in London.

But they claimed there were further delays waiting for someone to intubate her for the journey and she went into septic shock before leaving the premises.

‘She was sitting on my lap at the time. They took her into theatre and tried to resuscitate her for 50 minutes,’ said Mrs Samarina.

‘Then they called me back in and I held her hand as she slipped away.’

He husband was told to get to the hospital as quickly as possible but never got to say goodbye to his daughter.

‘Security were going to be waiting for me at reception to take Scarlett off me and let me be with Selina and Signe as quickly as possible,’ he said.

‘But the security guard took me to the wrong part of the hospital. It was too late by then. My wife had to endure it all on her own.’

The following day the hospital’s bereavement team arranged to drop round to the grieving family’s home to hand them a lock of Selina’s hair and an impression of her hand in a memory box.

But her mother revealed: ‘They came round with the wrong box and it was empty.’

An inquest in May concluded Selina died from sepsis and pneumonia, with contributory factors of Down’s syndrome and upper respiratory tract infection.

In his prevention of future deaths report, Stephen Simblet KC, the assistant coroner for Essex, said the ‘sufficiency of the staffing arrangements’ on the day Selina died was of concern.

A sepsis protocol was triggered and this should have led to her being seen by a senior doctor within an hour. 

But ‘huge demand’ on services meant a ‘very junior doctor’ checked the toddler instead.

Further pressure was caused because there were only seven doctors available across the emergency and paediatric departments instead of the usual 12.

‘I was told in evidence that the trust has now consolidated the staffing rotas for the emergency department and paediatrics department, so that it is now easier to see any deficit as one deficit across two departments,’ Mr Simblet added.

‘That does not, however, address the situation of how and why a situation in which only 60 per cent of the doctors are available for these important services.

Mrs Samarina said it had been ‘very difficult’ dealing with the bereavement and she had been coming to terms with that while going through another pregnancy in her 40s, because she and her husband had always wanted to have two children.

She added: ‘My eight-year-old is receiving counselling – when we told her I was pregnant she was very upset for a long time, because she was afraid that the same thing would happen to her new sister.’

Mid and South Essex NHS Hospital Trust was approached for comment regarding the couple’s allegations.