A 14-year-old girl who was supposed to be constantly observed in a psychiatric hospital died after an agency support worker with a false identity left her alone, an inquest jury has heard.
When he heard that Ruth Szymankiewicz, who was suffering from an eating disorder, had died, the worker fled from the UK to Ghana, the court was told.
Ruth’s parents, Kate and Mark Szymankiewicz, a GP and a consultant surgeon, had been concerned about Ruth being held at Huntercombe hospital in Maidenhead, Berkshire, because it was so far from their Wiltshire home and they thought a secure setting was wrong for her, the jury heard.
Assistant coroner Ian Wade KC told the jury that on 12 February 2022 Ruth should have been under constant watch at Huntercombe.
He said: “On that day, a new support worker had been recruited and came on duty.” The worker had been employed through a nursing agency and Wade said it “was understood” his name was Ebo Acheampong.
The coroner said: “The agency had purported to interview him, had apparently checked his identity documents and sought to train him by putting him through a day or day-and-a-half course, much of which was e-learning. Those processes were the norm and were sufficient to enable the hospital to employ this person.
“On 12 February, he did not keep Ruth under a constant watch. He was supposed to, but he did not. She was left unobserved for about 15 minutes. This man ended his shift at 8pm without knowing where she was and without making sure he handed her over to the next member of staff to continue the 1:1 regime. He simply left.”
Wade said Ruth went into her room and apparently carried out an act of self-harm that led to her death.
The coroner said the support worker had been using a false name. He said: “He had been assisted to acquire false identity documents.”
Police established through mobile phone records that he flew from Heathrow to Ghana, believed to be where he is from. “He has never been seen again,” said Wade. “Police think they knew who he truly was. He let Ruth down. He let everyone down.”
Ruth’s parents told the court she was a bright, loving, kind and adventurous child with great friends and a love of sports and animals. Kate Szymankiewicz said her death had “shattered” the family.
The jury heard that when she became a teenager, she developed tics and may have had Tourette syndrome. She had a “very deep fear” of putting on weight and was diagnosed with anorexia.
While being treated in hospital in Salisbury, a nasogastric feeding tube was wrongly inserted into her lung, leaving her requiring treatment in intensive care.
It was deemed she needed to be detained under the Mental Health Act but there was no psychiatric hospital bed near her home and she was sent more than 70 miles away to Huntercombe. Her parents were worried and Ruth disliked the hospital intensely, the inquest heard.
At the start of 2022 there had been some improvement and the regime she was under was eased but on 7 February 2022, she was put on 1:1 observation after an episode of self-harm.
The coroner said there had been two “unfavourable” Care Quality Commission reports on Huntercombe, which was run by the company Active Care Group. He said the hospital had closed.
The hearing at Buckinghamshire coroner’s court continues.
-
In the UK, Beat can be contacted on 0808-801-0677. In the US, help is available at nationaleatingdisorders.org or by calling ANAD’s eating disorders hotline at 800-375-7767. In Australia, the Butterfly Foundation is at 1800 33 4673. Other international helplines can be found at Eating Disorder Hope
